Congratulations to Udder Delights Australia who was named the winner of the 2023 Dairysafe Food Safety Culture Award at the SA Dairy Awards gala dinner on Friday night.
The award was presented by Deputy Premier, Hon Susan Close MP and Dairysafe Chair Roseanne Healy, and comes with a $5,000 education, training and development grant.
One of Dairysafe’s strategic priorities is ‘Inspiring a food safety culture’. “Dairysafe places significant emphasis on food safety culture because it is good for business and underpins the production of consistently safe, high-quality dairy products,” said Ms Healy.
“This year’s Food Safety Culture Award acknowledges businesses that have experienced an exceptional culture journey, including how food safety culture was introduced, the involvement of everyone in the business, successes, challenges, rewards, and future plans.
“Positive food safety culture comes from positive workforce relationships, communication, trust, accountability, feedback loops, measuring progress, collaboration between departments, training, problem-solving, teams working together on issues, and continuous improvement. And that is exactly what the judging panel has observed at Udder Delights.”
During the judging process the Panel found the Udder Delights brand is a source of pride for all staff. The strong culture exhibited at Udder Delights has developed through adversity and business growth – first a significant recall event in 2019, then the Adelaide Hills fires, followed by COVID. Many staff are long-standing and have been active culture champions ensuring that new or casual staff are inducted into Under Delights’ safe food culture environment and supported.
Udder Delights’ nomination and interview showcased a culture of honesty and openness, where teamwork and collaboration are highly valued for problem-solving. Udder Delights has undergone an exceptional journey moulded by adversity and growth. The company has a strong food safety culture that extends from their farmers to their distributors. Trust in their staff has resulted in extraordinary commitment and outcomes. It is a learning organisation that utilises all staff for their unique perspectives. An open-plan office effectively integrating senior management and staff reflects the company’s commitment to transparency, feedback, and information sharing within teams.
Ultimately, the judging panel believes that Udder Delights’ growth from adversity and inherent personality developed through its values and applied intent across all levels of the business truly represents an exceptional food safety culture journey.
Congratulations are also well deserved by the other finalists: Obela Fresh Dips and Spreads, Beston Pure Foods, and Mitani.
The panel acknowledged the three companies for their outstanding efforts in establishing and developing a culture of food safety. It is important to recognise and support their ongoing culture journeys towards further development and ongoing growth.
“These companies demonstrated they are well on the way in their own respective food safety culture journeys, doing terrific work that clearly benefits food safety outcomes for their businesses,” Ms Healy said.
The judging panel thanks all dairy processors that nominated for the 2023 award and looks forward to receiving even more nominees in 2024.
Front: Roseanne Healy, Gen Nakamura, Kim Sparks, Simon Dreckow.
