FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marti Hogan
(202) 220-3535
mhogan@idfa.org
(Washington, D.C. – January 24, 2019) Rich and Heather Draper of The Ice Cream Club, Inc., received the International Dairy Foods Association’s 2019 Food Safety Leadership Award during IDFA’s Dairy Forum this week in Orlando, Florida. The award, now in its third year, honors an individual, group or organization for demonstrating outstanding leadership directed at enhancing food safety within the dairy products industry. Rich is the CEO and Heather is director of the company, which is located in Boynton Beach, Florida.
“Rich and Heather were vital contributors to IDFA’s ice cream food safety task force, which developed a set of resources for the ice cream industry in 2016,” said John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards. “Most recently, they’re guiding IDFA’s efforts to develop a website that will provide food safety guidance and resources for small-scale and artisan ice cream producers. They’ve also shared their time and talents in an industry effort to educate artisan cheesemakers on food safety practices.”
The Drapers understand that a culture of food safety starts at the top, and they have worked tirelessly within The Ice Cream Club to define and implement strong food safety practices and ensure that all employees recognize the importance of food safety to the company and its customers.
“It is obvious to those of us who work with them across the dairy industry that they are shining examples of what IDFA’s Food Safety Leadership Award seeks to recognize and encourage,” Allan said.
The previous recipients of the award are the Cornell University Dairy Foods Extension team (2017) and Brian Kraus, director of food safety and regulatory compliance, Wells Enterprises, Inc. (2018).
A call for nominations for the 2020 Food Safety Leadership Award will be released this summer.
# # #
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, which supports nearly 3 million jobs that generate more than $161 billion in wages and has an overall economic impact of more than $628 billion. IDFA members range from multinational organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent approximately 90 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, cooperatives and companies that offer a wide variety of nutritional dairy products and dairy-derived ingredients.