The US poultry industry has published a list of 122 chicken and turkey facilities which have received safety awards from the country’s joint industry safety and health council.
The highlighting of the award winners follows a period of high profile reports, published by the general media, focusing on allegations of sub-standard performance in some plants.
The joint council, whose member organisations are the US Poultry & Egg Association, the National Chicken Council and the National Turkey Federation, represents 95% of all US poultry production units, with a combined workforce of 350,000 employees. The new listing of safety award winners was accompanied by a strong council statement, applauding the whole industry’s safety achievements.
“The poultry industry has made great progress over the last 20 years when it comes to workplace safety,” said the council. “Today our industry’s safety record is almost equal to that of the rest of the manufacturing industries.
“Although great improvements have been made, industry safety professionals are continuously looking for ways to improve. No matter their role, safety is a commitment expected of all employees in the industry.”
The council also revealed that the total recordable poultry processing illness and injury rate for 2014 was 4.3 cases per 100 full-time workers (per year), down from 4.5 in 2013.
“This represents an 81% decrease from 1994 (the oldest data available), when the recorded rate was 22.7, demonstrating the enormous progress poultry processors have made in improving safety for our workforce,” said the council.
The new listing included the granting of “distinction awards” to a number of plants run by the following companies:
- American Proteins
- Butterball LLC
- Cargill Protein Group
- Cargill Turkey Production LLC
- Cobb-Vantress, Inc.
- Foster Farms
- GNP Company
- Keystone Foods LLC
- Koch Foods, Inc.
- Mountaire Farms Inc.
- Perdue Farms
- Pilgrim’s Corp
- Tyson / River Valley Animal Foods
- Tyson Foods
- Wayne Farms LLC
