Hormel Foods Corporation announced today that its ranking jumped 10 spots to No. 30 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 12th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List.”

The company ranked 40th in both 2009 and 2010.

“We are honored to be recognized for our long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility, and it is exciting to see our ranking increase this year,” said CEO Jeffrey M. Ettinger said in a press release. “We believe this increase is a testament to the dedication of our employees who live out these principles every day and our focus to increase transparency through our reporting efforts.”

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List gauges performance in several key areas of corporate responsibility, including environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial and governance.

The list is entirely compiled based on nonsecure websites, government and regulatory sources, investment publications and nongovernmental organization databases.

Hormel Foods aims to publicly disclose information about its dedication to corporate responsibility each year through its corporate responsibility report and several other initiatives. The 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report will be released in May.

To learn more about corporate responsibility and sustainability at Hormel Foods and to view the 2009 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report, visit www.hormelfoods.com/csr.