For Immediate Release

Contact:
Marti Hogan
mhogan@idfa.org     
(202) 220-3535

(Washington, D.C. – January 25, 2017) The International Dairy Foods Association is now accepting applications for the 13^th annual Dairy Industry Safety Recognition Awards, a program that honors facilities and trucking operations for outstanding worker safety performance. Because health and safety experts believe that an effective worker safety program involves use of both leading and lagging indicators, IDFA has expanded its application to include both indicators as part of the award criteria.

“For the past several years, IDFA has collected information on leading indicators that the dairy industry commonly uses in effective safety and health programs,” said Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel. “We are pleased that we now are able to recognize IDFA members that have implemented proactive safety programs to prevent illness and injuries from occurring in the workplace and that have outstanding safety statistics to verify the programs are working.”

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.

Dairy processing and trucking operations will be judged on occupational injury and illness performance rates, which are recorded in each operation’s “Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses” report (Occupational Safety and Health Administration Form 300A), as well as on the components of their safety and health programs. Companies are required to post their OSHA 300A forms from February 1 through April 30 each year.

To be eligible for an award, a processing facility or transportation operation must implement an effective and innovative health and safety program and have illness and injury rates below the industry average.

“The dairy industry continually demonstrates that worker safety is a top priority by demonstrating their efforts to provide a safe and productive work environmental for all employees, said Lyons. “IDFA encourages all dairy facilities to nominate their processing and trucking operations so that IDFA and the industry can recognize and celebrate their success.”

Award winners will be notified in the fall and featured in Dairy Foods magazine, which co-sponsors the safety awards program.

The 2017 award program rules, regulations and application form are available here, and there is no fee to enter. You must be an IDFA member to enter. All entries must be submitted to IDFA no later than April 20, 2017.

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.