IDFA Honors Companies for Worker Safety
Award winners recognized at plant operatons conference.
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) |
