The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) honored a select group of dairy companies with IDFA Dairy Plant Safety Recognition Awards and Achievement Certificates at a special ceremony during the association’s Plant Operations Conference held last month in Chicago. IDFA created the recognition program this year to honor dairy plants with exceptional worker safety records and inspire others to enhance their safety measures.

Nominated plants were judged solely on specific data required annually by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on the facility’s “Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses” report. Award recipients were chosen based on data from OSHA reports for the 2003 calendar year.

Among the categories, based on product type and plant size, Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand Ice Cream Co. swept the ice cream division, taking home the awards for the small (tie), medium and large plants. Foremost Farms USA was also a triple winner in the cheese, dry product (tie) and milk categories. SouthWest won two awards in milk and ice cream (tie) product categories. Other category winners include Jasper Products (milk), Safeway Inc. (milk), Tillamook County Creamery Association (cheese) and WestFarm Foods (dry products, tie).

In addition to the overall award winners, IDFA recognized seven plants with Achievement Certificates for having zero cases resulting in days away from work. Certificate winners were Crowley Foods, Dean Foods/Land O’Lakes Milk, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Marigold Foods, Marva Maid Dairy, Midwest Ice Cream and Verifine Dairy Products Co. of Sheboygan Inc.

“This program is an excellent way to highlight the commitment that dairy companies have shown toward worker safety,” says Clay Detlefsen, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs. “We were very pleased to see the high quality of the nominations and the overall response to this program’s launch. Congratulations to these outstanding dairy plants.”

Facilities were judged in four product categories: natural and processed cheese; dry, condensed and evaporated products; ice cream and frozen desserts; and fluid milk. Within each product category, IDFA accepted nominations for small (one to 100 employees, annual average), medium (101 to 200 employees, annual average) and large (200-plus employees, annual average) facilities that achieved the best overall safety performance rates based on the OSHA data.

2004 Winners of Dairy Plant Safety
Recognition Awards (product type/plant size)
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Commerce, Calif.	(ice cream, medium)
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Salt Lake City	(ice cream, small [tie])
Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, Fort Wayne, Ind.	(ice cream, large)
Foremost Farms USA, Marshfield, Wis.	(cheese, small)
Foremost Farms USA, Preston, Minn.	(dry products, small [tie])
Foremost Farms USA, Waukesha, Wis.	(milk, medium)
Jasper Products, Joplin, Mo.	(milk, large)
Safeway Milk Plant, Denver	(milk, small)
SouthWest Foods, Tyler, Texas	(ice cream, small [tie])
SouthWest Dairy, Tyler, Texas	(milk, small)
Tillamook Creamery, Tillamook, Ore.	(cheese, large)
WestFarm Foods, Caldwell, Idaho	(dry products, small [tie])
Achievement Certificates for Zero Lost Work Days (product type/plant size)
Crowley Foods, Bristol, Va.	(cheese, small)
Dean Foods/Land O’Lakes Milk, Sioux Falls, S.D.	(milk, small)
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Bakersfield, Calif.	(ice cream, large)
Marigold Foods, Rapid City, S.D.	(milk, small)
Marva Maid Dairy, Newport News, Va.	(milk, medium)
Midwest Ice Cream, Belvidere, Ill.	(ice cream, medium)
Verifine Dairy Products Co. of Sheboygan Inc., Sheboygan, Wis.	(milk, small)