The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) said it is recognizing 34 dairy companies for their outstanding achievements in worker safety in 2020 with an IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award. This is the 18th year IDFA has sponsored this program, highlighting the outstanding workplace safety achievements of U.S. dairy companies.

“In announcing these dairy companies as safety award winners, the dairy industry continues to demonstrate that safety in the workplace is the dairy industry’s No. 1 priority,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., president and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based IDFA. “Each award represents the success of the innovative and proactive approaches to workplace safety by dairy company safety teams.

“Every day, year after year, dairy companies go above and beyond to provide a safe and productive work environment,” he added. “Consumers and customers of dairy foods companies value how these innovations help to deliver safe, wholesome and nutritious food to people around the world.”

Each company applied by detailing their occupational injury and illness performance rates, as well as by providing a narrative essay on safety efforts at the facility. Evaluations and awards were based on a review of injury statistics from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and judged by Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., of Fisher & Phillips LLP, Kathie Canning of Dairy Foods magazine and Taylor Boone of IDFA.

“Lagging indicators such as lost-time injury and illness rates and DART rates do not give the full picture of how good a company safety and health program is,” said Foulke. “Moving towards utilizing leading indicators such as a strong culture of worker safety, including continuous improvement, continuous education, engagement for employees and observations by managers and employees are more effective ways to improve a good safety and health program.

“Clearly, many members of the International Dairy Foods Association are utilizing not only lagging indicators, but are now focusing in on leading indicators, which will dramatically enhance their safety and health programs,” he added.

The award program includes categories for both processing facilities and trucking operations in the dairy industry. IDFA issued a total of 34 awards. In addition to 28 Outstanding Facility safety award winners, IDFA said it recognized six companies as Most Improved Facility award winners, based on significant decreases in recordable-injury cases and the rate of days away from work, restrictions and transfers (DART) for each of the last two years when compared to all other facilities that applied.

The honorees include:

2021 Outstanding Awards in Worker Safety

• Centennial Farms Dairy — Atlanta (fluid milk).
• Compton Creamery — Compton, Calif. (fluid milk).
• Compton Creamery — Compton, Calif. (ice cream).
• Crystal Farms Dairy Co. — Lake Mills, Wis. (cheese).
• Darigold — Boise Fleet — Boise, Idaho (trucking, local).
• Darigold — Sunnyside Fleet — Sunnyside, Wash. (trucking, local).
• Fairlife — Coopersville, Mich. (fluid milk).
• Fairlife — Dexter, N.M. (fluid milk).
• Foremost Farms USA — Clayton, Wis. (cheese).
• Foremost Farms USA — Marshfield, Wis. (cheese).
• Glanbia Nutritionals — Twinfalls Cheese Plant — Twinfalls, Idaho (cheese).
• Hiland Dairy — Little Rock, Ark. (fluid milk).
• HP Hood LLC — Agawam Distribution Operations – Agawam, Mass. (trucking, local).
• Kroger, Layton Dairy — Layton, Utah (cheese).
• Kroger Co., Layton Dairy — Layton, Utah (fluid milk)
• Kroger Co., Layton Dairy — Layton, Utah (ice cream)
• Kroger Co. — Springdale Ice Cream and Beverage — Springdale, Ohio (ice cream).
• Kroger Co., Westover Dairy — Lynchburg, Va. (fluid milk).
• Kroger Mountain View Foods — Denver (fluid milk).
• Pace Dairy Foods Co. — Rochester, Minn. (cheese).
• Pace Dairy Foods Co. — Crawfordsville, Ind. (cheese).
• Prairie Farms Dairy — Carbondale, Ill. (cheese).
• Prairie Farms Dairy — Carlinville, Ill. (fluid milk).
• Prairie Farms Dairy — O’Fallon, Ill. (ice cream).
• Prairie Farms Dairy — Springfield, Ill. (ice cream).
• Tamarack Farms Dairy — Newark, Ohio (fluid milk).
• Valley Milk LLC — Turlock, Calif. (dry, condensed, evaporated).
• Tolleson Dairy — Tolleson, Ariz. (fluid milk).

2021 Most Improved Award in Worker Safety

• Darigold Fleet — Seattle, Wash. (trucking, local).
• Masters Gallery Foods — Plymouth, Wis. (cheese).
• Masters Gallery Foods — Plymouth, Wis. (trucking, local).
• HP Hood LLC — Agawam Fluid Milk Plant — Agawam, Mass. (fluid milk).
• HP Hood LLC — Batavia, N.Y. (fluid milk).
• Tamarack Farms Dairy — Newark, Ohio (fluid milk).

“These awards show that the dairy industry is driven not only to produce nutritious and delicious dairy products, but to do so as part of a company-wide safety culture,” said Taylor Boone, IDFA regulatory affairs coordinator.

IDFA said it will issue a call for nominations for the next Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Awards competition in early 2022. To learn more, visit the association’s awards page on idfa.org.