Workplace safety is a key priority for Maple Leaf Foods. In 2009, the company adopted a “Safety Promise” to dedicate itself to enhancing workplace safety and food safety. Four years later, we began an internal safety awards program designed to keep the spotlight on safety, and each year, top performing plants are honoured internally in a special ceremony. More recently, in 2018, the company declared its purpose to “Raise the Good in Food” through a progressive and purposeful sustainability platform including a strong focus on caring for our people.
Maple Leaf Foods leads the North American meat, poultry, prepared meats, and hog and pig farming industries in overall safety performance. In 2018, the company’s overall “recordable injury rate” reached an all-time company low (0.66), comparable to world leaders in “all manufacturing”. In addition, in 2018, 29 Maple Leaf Foods facilities within the corporate family of plants and barns sustained zero recordable injuries.
In February 2019, four of our plants were recognized by the North American Meat Institute and the National Safety Council with awards for their workplace safety achievements. Speedvale in Guelph, Ontario, Cappola in Toronto, Ontario, and Walker Drive in Brampton, Ontario all received the Award of Honor, while Toronto Poultry in Toronto, Ontario, received the Award of Merit. In September 2018, Maple Leaf Foods’ Edmonton facility received the Award of Honor from the Poultry Industry Safety Council.
The Institute’s Worker Safety Recognition Awards Program aims to motivate employers to improve their safety performance through the establishment of sound safety and health programs at the plant level, and to recognize those plants that have achieved a high level of safety performance as part of a continuing effort to reduce occupational injury and illness. All Maple Leaf Foods facilities that applied for the awards were recognized.
Maple Leaf Foods has set a goal to reduce workplace injuries by an additional 20 per cent by 2021, on the path to our aspiration of zero injuries at all our facilities.
