The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) said it is recognizing 80 dairy company operations for their outstanding achievements in worker safety. Each operation or plant will receive the IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award this year. This is the 14th year that IDFA has sponsored the program, which highlights the outstanding worker safety records of U.S. dairy companies.

Award consideration was based on injury statistics required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that were compiled over the past three years, as well as on the evaluation of written applications by four judges: Dave Crowley, senior environmental health and safety director for HP Hood LLC and chair of IDFA’s Environmental Worker Safety Committee; Daniel R. Flynn, a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP; Kathie Canning, editor-in-chief of Dairy Foods magazine; and Emily Lyons, IDFA’s director of regulatory affairs and counsel.

“The annual IDFA safety awards recognize outstanding safety efforts by both employees and management representatives at each member company that received an award. Winning firms have demonstrated that they are able to keep workplace safety front and center, and the large number of applications for the award shows that safety truly matters to IDFA’s members,” Crowley said.

The award program includes categories for both processing facilities and trucking operations in the dairy industry. In addition to the 48 plant-safety award winners, IDFA recognized eight companies with a Most Improved Facility award 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. IDFA also recognized 24 trucking operations for their outstanding worker safety records and programs.

“The IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Award is an excellent opportunity for applicants to showcase innovative safety and health initiatives that go above and beyond OSHA’s requirements and demonstrate a genuine commitment to the safety and health of their employees,” Flynn, an OSHA expert, said.

The honorees include:

2017 Facility Award Winners

  • 31 Logistics - Haines City, Fla.
  • Compton Creamery - Compton, Calif.
  • Creamland Dairies - Gallup, N.M.
  • Crossroad Farms Dairy – Ice Cream Department - Indianapolis, Ind.
  • Crossroad Farms Dairy - Indianapolis, Ind.
  • DanoneWave (formerly WhiteWave Foods) - DuBois, Pa.
  • DanoneWave (formerly WhiteWave Foods) - Jacksonville, Fla.
  • DanoneWave (formerly WhiteWave Foods) - Mt. Crawford, Va.
  • Dean Foods Co. - Le Mars, Iowa
  • Foremost Farms USA - Chilton, Wis.
  • Foremost Farms USA - Plover, Wis.
  • Foremost Farms USA - Reedsburg, Wis.
  • Gandy’s Dairy – Ice Cream Plant - Clovis, N.M.
  • Gandy’s Dairy – Milk Plant - Clovis, N.M.
  • Garelick Farms - Portland, Maine
  • Heritage Farms Dairy - Murfreesboro, Tenn.
  • HP Hood LLC - Agawam, Mass.
  • Land O’Lakes – Ice Cream Plant - Bismarck, N.D.
  • Land O’Lakes – Milk Plant - Bismarck, N.D.
  • Leprino Foods Company - Tracy, Calif.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Ice Cream Plant  Birmingham, Ala.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Ice Cream Plant - Carrollton, Ga.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Ice Cream Plant - Rainsville, Ala.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Ice Cream Plant - Waycross, GA
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Milk Plant - Carrollton, Ga.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Milk Plant - Rainsville, Ala.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Milk Plant - Waycross, GA
  • Meadow Gold Dairy - Cortez, Colo.
  • Meadow Gold Dairy - Durango, Colo.
  • Meadow Gold Dairy - Great Falls, Mon.
  • Meadow Gold Dairy - Poncha Springs, Colo.
  • Meadow Gold Dairy - Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Michigan Dairy - Livonia, Mich.
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Alexandria, La.
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Beaumont, Texas
  • Oak Farms Dairy - DeRiddler, La.
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Lufkin, Texas
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Sweeny, Texas
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Uvalde, Texas
  • Oak Farms Dairy - Victoria, Texas
  • Price’s Creameries - Alamogordo, N.M.
  • Price’s Creameries - El Paso, Texas
  • Price’s Creameries - Las Cruces, N.M.
  • Price’s Creameries - Roswell, N.M.
  • T.G. Lee Dairy - Tallahassee, Fla.
  • Tamarack Farms Dairy - Newark, Ohio
  • The Kroger Co. – Swan Island Dairy - Portland, Ore.
  • The Kroger Co. – Westover Dairy - Lynchburg, Va.

2017 Most Improved Facilities

  • Country Delite Farms - Nashville, Tenn.
  • Dean Dairy Holdings, LLC - Huntley, Ill.
  • Foremost Farms USA - Lancaster, Wis.
  • Foremost Farms USA - Rothschild, Wis.
  • Leprino Foods Company – Cheese Plant - Greeley, Colo.
  • Leprino Foods Company – Dried Ingredients Plant - Greeley, Colo.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. – Milk Plant - Birmingham, Ala.
  • Mayfield Dairy Farms, Inc. - Winfield, Tenn.

2017 Transportation Award Winners

  • Broughton Foods - Oak Hill, W.V.
  • Broughton Foods - Old Washington, Ohio
  • HP Hood LLC - Vernon, N.Y.
  • Kemps LLC - Aberdeen, S.D.
  • Kemps LLC - Bismarck, N.D.
  • Kemps LLC - Eau Claire, Wis.
  • Kemps LLC - Fergus Falls, Minn.
  • Kemps LLC - St. Cloud, Minn.
  • Meadow Brook Dairy Company - Rochester, N.Y.
  • PET Dairy - Bluefield, Va.
  • PET Dairy - Jacksonville, N.C.
  • PET Dairy - Jefferson, N.C.
  • PET Dairy - Lenoir, N.C.
  • PET Dairy - Lumberton, N.C.
  • PET Dairy - Martinsville, Va.
  • PET Dairy - Roanoke, Va.
  • PET Dairy - Rockingham, N.C.
  • PET Dairy - South Boston, Va.
  • PET Dairy - Warsaw, Va.
  • PET Dairy - Wilmington, Ky.
  • Purity Dairies - Bowling Green, Ky.
  • Purity Dairies - Hohenwald, Tenn.
  • Purity Dairies - Knoxville, Tenn.
  • Reiter Dairy - Findlay, Ohio

“The IDFA Dairy Industry Safety Awards not only recognize the outstanding safety-related efforts of dairy food companies, but they also inspire those companies to devise creative ways to engage employees and reap continuous safety-related improvements,” Canning from Dairy Foods said.

The 2017 winners will be featured in an upcoming issue of Dairy Foods magazine. IDFA said it will issue a call for nominations for the next Dairy Industry Safety Awards competition in early 2018.