WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2024—The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) today 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 is 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.”
A full list of the winners is here.
Criteria for Success
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.
The 2024 winners will also be featured on DairyFoods.com. IDFA will issue a call for nominations for the next Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Awards competition in mid-2025. To learn more, visit the IDFA industry awards page.
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Contact: press@idfa.org
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, which supports more than 3.2 million jobs that generate $49 billion in direct wages and $794 billion in overall economic impact. IDFA’s diverse membership ranges from multinational organizations to single-plant companies, from dairy companies and cooperatives to food retailers and suppliers, all on the cutting edge of innovation and sustainable business practices. Together, they represent most of the milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt and cultured products, and dairy ingredients produced and marketed in the United States and sold throughout the world. Delicious, safe and nutritious, dairy foods offer unparalleled health and consumer benefits to people of all ages.