US poultry facilities awarded for safety performance

The Joint Industry Safety and Health Council in the United States has recognised 92 chicken and turkey facilities for outstanding safety performance through the implementation of innovative and effective employee safety and health programs.

The annual safety awards were presented during the 2013 National Safety Conference for the Poultry Industry held in Amelia Island, FL.

The Joint Industry Safety and Health Council consist of members from US Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council and National Turkey Federation. Collectively, the three organisations represent companies that produce 95% of the nation’s poultry products and employ over 350,000 workers.

“We would like to congratulate these facilities and their management teams. These awards recognise outstanding safety performance achievements as a result of their effective and innovative programs. The noteworthy and consistent decrease in illness and injury rates among poultry’s workforce over the last two decades is a direct result of their compelling dedication to worker safety,” said the Council.

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-four facilities including those of Butterball, Cargill and Perdue Farms received the highest level of recognition, “Award of Distinction.” The other categories included “Award of Honor” and “Award of Merit.”

The complete list of recognised facilities can be found here.