Some local poultry plants get safety honors
by June 11, 2012 10:36 am 93 views
A few local poultry companies were among 68 chicken and turkey facilities across the country to garner outstanding safety honors from the Joint Industry Safety and Health Council recently The annual safety awards were recently presented during the 2012 National Safety Conference for the Poultry Industry held in Ponte Vedra, FL.
Top honors went to local operations of Butterball, Cargill and Simmons Foods. Cobb-Vantress, a subsidiary of Tyson Foods, also picked up a safety award on Friday (June 8.)
Award of Distinction
Butterball LLC
Huntsville, AR – Processing
Ozark, AR – Processing
Cargill Turkey Production LLC
Springdale, AR – Feed Mill
Simmons Foods
Siloam Springs, AR – Further Processing
Award of Honor
Cargill Value Added Meats
Springdale, AR – Processing
Cobb-Vantress Inc.
Siloam Springs, AR – Feed Mill
“I not only commend these plants and their management teams for their tremendous efforts to protect their workers, but for their ongoing dedication to further progress,” said Mike Brown, National Chicken Council president. “The significant and consistent decline in illness and injury rates among our workforce over the past two decades is a direct result of their strong commitment to worker safety.”
Award consideration was based on injury statistics over three years and an evaluation of written applications by three judges: Gary Pohlmann of Marsh Risk Consulting, Doug Britton, program manager for Agricultural Technology Research at Georgia Tech Research Institute, and George Nassif of Aon Global Risk Consulting. Twenty-five facilities received the highest level of recognition, “Award of Distinction.” The other categories included “Award of Honor” and “Award of Merit.”
“The poultry industry has been diligent in reducing recordable injuries and illnesses for nearly 30 years,” said Joel Brandenberger, president of the.National Turkey Federation.
The Joint Industry Safety and Health Council consist of members from U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council and National Turkey Federation. Collectively, the three organizations represent companies that produce 95% of the nation’s poultry products and employ over 350,000 workers.