Washington, D.C. – The International Dairy Foods Association is now accepting applications for the 12th annual Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Awards, a program that honors facilities for outstanding worker safety performance. Because health and safety experts believe that monitoring both leading and lagging indicators is crucial to an effective worker safety system, IDFA has gathered information on leading indicators since 2013.
“When the IDFA safety award program was created a dozen years ago, it captured only lagging indicators, meaning injury rates,” said David Crowley, senior environmental health and safety director for HP Hood LLC, whose facilities have earned scores of safety awards over the years. “By including criteria for leading indicators in recent years, IDFA has helped to emphasize the importance of monitoring the proactive safety efforts in the dairy world and to promote positive things that help prevent injuries from occurring in the workplace.”
Examples of leading indicators include:
- Number of inspections conducted;
- Number of safety and health hazards identified;
- Decreased time for hazard abatement;
- Increased employing training;
- Safety suggestions implemented; and
- Job hazard analyses completed.
“Year after year, our member companies have demonstrated their efforts to provide a safe and productive work environment for all employees, reinforcing that worker safety is a top priority in the dairy industry,” said Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel. “We urge all dairy facilities to nominate their processing and trucking operations so IDFA and the industry can recognize and celebrate their success.”
According to Crowley, “The IDFA safety awards are a great way to acknowledge outstanding safety performance. It is a source of pride for any dairy location to receive this type of recognition from IDFA.”
For 2016, applicants will be judged on specific data required by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on the facility’s “Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses” report (OSHA Form 300A). Employers are required to post their OSHA 300A forms from February 1 through April 30 each year.
Processing facilities are judged in four product categories: natural and processed cheese; dry, condensed, and evaporated products; ice cream and frozen desserts; and fluid milk. Within each product category, there are awards for small, medium and large facilities that achieve the best overall safety performance rates based on the OSHA data.
Trucking operations will receive certificates for having no lost days and no cases involving job transfers or restrictions.
Award winners will be notified in the fall and featured in Dairy Foods magazine, which co-sponsors the safety awards program.
The 2016 entry form is available at www.idfa.org, and there is no fee to enter. All entries must be submitted to IDFA no later than March 31, 2016.
For more information, contact Lyons at elyons@idfa.org or (202) 220-3507.
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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies within a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's nearly 200 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85 percent of the milk, cultured products, cheese, ice cream and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States. IDFA can be found online at www.idfa.org.
Source: The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
