FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Marti Hogan
(202) 220-3535
mhogan@idfa.org
Audra Kruse
(202) 220-3529
akruse@idfa.org
(Washington, D.C. – August 2, 2018) The dairy industry has a longstanding reputation for providing healthy, wholesome and safe dairy products. To celebrate this continued culture of food safety across the industry, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) is seeking nominations for its 2019 Food Safety Leadership Award.
The award, now in its third year, will honor a group or organization selected from the association’s membership for demonstrating outstanding leadership toward enhancing food safety within the dairy products industry. The award alternates between honoring companies or groups in odd years and individuals in even years.
To qualify this year, nominees must fall into one of these categories: a member company that processes, manufactures, markets or distributes dairy products in North America; a group or organization within this kind of company; or an IDFA-organized group of volunteers, such as a committee, task force or working group, where employees of a member company make up a majority of the group.
“IDFA and our members believe that maintaining and promoting a culture of food safety across the dairy industry has never been more important, especially as implementation and enforcement of the Food Safety Modernization Act continues this year,” said John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards, who will oversee the selection process. “We know there are many deserving teams within our membership, and we look forward to recognizing one of them at Dairy Forum.”
The winning team will be honored at a special recognition ceremony during the 2019 Dairy Forum, taking place Jan. 20-23, 2019, at The Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida. Up to two representatives from the winning organization may receive free registration, airfare and hotel accommodations to attend.
IDFA presented the inaugural award in 2017 to Cornell University’s Dairy Foods Extension Team and the 2018 award to Brian Kraus, director of food safety and regulatory compliance for Wells Enterprises, Inc., which makes Blue Bunny ice cream and other frozen desserts.
IDFA is accepting nominations through September 30, 2018. The criteria for nominations are available at IDFA Food Safety Leadership Award.
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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, which supports nearly 3 million jobs, generates more than $39 billion in direct wages and has an overall economic impact of more than $628 billion. IDFA is the umbrella organization for the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA).
IDFA’s members range from large multinational 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 and sold throughout the world. The diverse membership includes numerous food retailers, suppliers and companies that offer infant formula and a wide variety of milk-derived ingredients. IDFA can be found at www.idfa.org.