Behind the Scenes: A Day at D&D Poultry, the Facility Behind Glacial Treasure

Every Glacial Treasure product on a Fortinos shelf came out of our facility at 300 Milliken Blvd, Toronto. Here’s an honest look at what a day in that facility looks like.

Morning: Receiving and Prep

The day starts early. Fresh chicken arrives from our Ontario farm partners and is inspected against our HACCP specifications before it’s accepted onto the floor. Temperature checks, visual inspection, documentation. Nothing gets to the processing line unless it meets our standards. This is where food safety starts.

Meanwhile, marinades are being prepared — mixed by hand from Anastasia Dikeos’s original recipes for our souvlaki, shawarma, and kafta lines. The blend ratios haven’t changed in thirty years. They don’t need to.

Late Morning: Processing

Chicken is portioned, marinated, seasoned, and formed depending on the product. Souvlaki skewers are hand-threaded. Kafta is shaped and portioned. Stuffed chicken breasts are hand-assembled. Volume production, but with more manual attention than most manufacturers of our size.

Every batch is documented — lot numbers, time stamps, quality checks. If we ever need to trace a specific product back to a specific production run, we can do it in minutes.

Afternoon: IQF Freezing and Packaging

Products move through our IQF freezing tunnels — flash-frozen individually to preserve texture, flavour, and prevent clumping. Then packaging: portioning, sealing, labelling, palletizing. Ready for cold chain distribution to Fortinos, food service accounts across Ontario, and stock replenishment for our own Cash & Carry.

The People

Under 50 people work in this facility. Betty, Alex, Georgia, and Bobby — the second generation of the Dikeos family — are here every day. Five grandchildren of Kostas and Anastasia also work in the operation. When customers come to our Cash & Carry on a Saturday, the youngest generation is often at the counter. That’s not staged. That’s just how this place works.

If you’d like to see it for yourself, our Cash & Carry at 300 Milliken Blvd is open Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 9am–3pm. Call 416-609-9300 to arrange a visit.