Food Safety Leadership Award

IDFA and its members are committed to maintaining and enhancing the high quality and safety of U.S. dairy foods products. The IDFA Food Safety Leadership Award recognizes outstanding leadership and efforts by individuals, groups or organizations within its membership to enhance food safety.

The deadline for nominations for the 2023 award is October 28, 2022. The winner will be honored at Dairy Forum 2023. Download a nomination form here.

Eligible Candidates

In odd years, such as 2023, the winner will be selected from one of these categories:

In even years, the winner will be an employee of an IDFA member company that processes, manufactures, markets or distributes dairy products in North America.

Previous Winners

Jeremy Travis, Vice President of Quality & Technical Services, Hilmar Cheese Company, Inc. (2022)

DFA Dairy Brands Division Food Safety and Quality Assurance Team (2021)

“The members of this DFA Dairy Brands team, led by Roger Hooi, are well-respected and recognized across the dairy industry and have contributed greatly to advancing food safety for the broader dairy industry.

John Allan, IDFA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and International Standards

Edith Wilkin, Staff Vice President and Fellow, Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance, Leprino Foods (2020)

Rich Draper, CEO, and Heather Draper, Director, The Ice Cream Club, Inc. (2019)

Brian Kraus, Director of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance, Wells Enterprises, Inc. (2018)

Cornell University Dairy Foods Extension team (2017)

For more information, contact John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards, at jallan@idfa.org.

Staff Contact

John Allan

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and International Standards, IDFA