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IDFA awards 37 dairy companies for safety

This is the 19th year that IDFA has sponsored this program.

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) recognized 37 dairy companies for their outstanding achievements in worker safety in 2021 with the IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award. This is the 19th year that IDFA has sponsored this program, highlighting the outstanding workplace safety achievements of U.S. dairy companies.

“The dairy industry continues to demonstrate that safety in the workplace is the dairy industry’s number one priority,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., IDFA president and CEO. “Each safety recognition 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. Consumers and customers of dairy foods companies value how these innovations help to deliver safe, nutritious food to people around the world.”

Each company applied by providing their occupational injury and illness performance rates as well as a providing a detailed narrative essay on safety efforts at the facility and leading indicators. This year, the narrative essays played a greater role in the evaluation, with equal weight given to essays and injury statistics from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Judging this year was conducted by Pete VanDerlyke, PhD, CSP, of Peco Foods Inc.; Amy Vodraska of Dairy Foods magazine; and Danielle Quist and Taylor Boone of IDFA.

“Clearly, many members of the International Dairy Foods Association are utilizing both lagging indicators as well as leading indicators, which is evident in their strong safety and health programs,” said VanDerlyke. “Coupling the measurement of properly implemented leading indicators, ones that include management commitment and employee engagement, with traditional lagging indicators not only enhances a safety and health program, it also builds the culture that’s desired. These awards demonstrate the understanding of how and why a strong safety culture is such an integral part of any dairy facility operation.”

“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 project manager.

Winners are below:

Cheese

Bel Brands USA – Leitchfield, KY
Dairy Farmers of America – New Wilmington, PA
Middlebury Cheese Company – Middlebury, IN
Pace Dairy Foods – Crawfordsville, IN
Savencia - FDL West – City of Industry, CA
Kroger – Layton Dairy – Layton, UT

Dry, Condensed & Evaporated

Foremost Farms USA – Plover, WI
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Coop. Inc. – Valley Milk Products – Strasburg, VA
Darigold – Chehalis, WA

Fluid Milk

Danone North America – City of Industry, CA
Danone North America – Dallas, TX
Danone North America – Mt. Crawford, VA
Dairy Farmers of America – Mountain Area Transportation – Salt Lake City, UT
Fairlife – Coopersville, MI
Fairlife – Dexter, NM
Jilbert Dairy – Marquette, WI
Jilbert Dairy Logistics – Marquette, WI
Lehigh Valley Dairy Farms - Schuylkill Haven, PA
Meadow Gold Dairy – Boise, ID
Price’s Creameries – El Paso, TX
T.G. Lee Dairy – Deland, FL
H.P. Hood, LLC – Agawam, MA
Kroger – Layton Dairy – Layton, UT

Ice Cream

Kroger – Layton Dairy – Layton, UT
Mayfield Dairy Farms – Alabama Ice Cream Distribution - Birmingham, AL

Trucking, Local

Agri-Mark/Cabot Creamery Cooperative – Montpelier, VT
Dairy Farmers of America – Jerome, ID
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Coop. Inc. – Maola Milk & Ice Cream – Charlotte, NC
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Coop. Inc. – Maola Milk & Ice Cream – Fayetteville, NC
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Coop. Inc. – Maola Milk & Ice Cream – High Point, NC
Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Coop. Inc. – Marva Maid Dairy – Roanoke, VA
Darigold – Bozeman Fleet – Bozeman, MT Darigold – Spokane Fleet – Spokane, WA