The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) recognized 23 dairy business operations for their outstanding achievements and improvements in worker safety in 2023 with the IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award. This marks the 21st year that IDFA has sponsored this program, highlighting the outstanding workplace safety achievements of U.S. dairy companies.

“IDFA’s Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Awards highlight the exceptional efforts of dairy companies to foster a culture where workplace safety is not just a goal, but a shared responsibility,” said Michael Dykes, D.V.M., IDFA president and CEO. “Each award represents the success of the innovative and proactive approaches that IDFA members take to improve safety within their processing environments. Consumers and customers of dairy foods companies value how these innovations help to deliver safe, nutritious food to people around the world.”

Each awardee applied by providing their occupational injury and illness performance rates as well as providing a detailed narrative essay on safety and training efforts at the facility and leading indicators, 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 Harbor Freight Tools and Danielle Quist of IDFA.

“IDFA’s members continue to expand the use of leading indicators as a key part of a strong safety and health program,” said VanDerlyke. “Implementation of leading indicators that include management commitment and employee engagement, along with traditional lagging indicators enhances a safety and health program and builds a strong safety culture throughout the company. These awards continue to demonstrate the understanding of how and why a strong safety culture is such an integral part of any dairy facility operation.”

The award program includes categories for both processing facilities and trucking operations in the dairy industry. IDFA issued a total of 23 awards; in addition to 20 Outstanding Facility safety award winners, IDFA recognized 3 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.

 Award winners are:

2024 Outstanding Awards in Workers Safety

Agri-Mark, Inc./Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Transportation DSD
 Agri-Mark, Inc./Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Transportation Shuttle
 Albertsons Companies, Safeway Bellevue Ice Cream – Bellevue, Wash.
 Byrne Dairy, Inc. – Cortlandville, N.Y.
 Centennial Farms Dairy – Atlanta, Ga.
 Crystal Farms Dairy Company – Lake Mills, Wis.
 Columbia River Technologies – Portland, Ore.
 Glanbia Nutritionals – Richfield, Idaho
 Glanbia Nutritionals Transportation
 HP Hood LLC, Vernon Transportation
 The Kroger Co., Layton Dairy – Layton, Utah
 The Kroger Co., Mountain View Dairy – Denver
 The Kroger Co., Pace Dairy of Indiana – Crawfordsville, Ind.
 The Kroger Co., Pace Dairy of Minnesota – Rochester, Minn.
 The Kroger Co., Swan Island Dairy – Portland, Ore.
 Lactalis American Group – Merrill, Wis.
 Michigan Milk Producers Association – Constantine, Mich.
 Nelson-Jameson – Marshfield, Wis.
 Nelson-Jameson – Turlock, Calif.
 Tolleson Dairy – Tolleson, Ariz.

2024 Most Improved Award in Worker Safety

Albertsons Cos. – Hatfield, Pa.
 Idaho Milk Products – Jerome, Idaho
 The Kroger Co., Crossroads Farms Dairy – Indianapolis