Four companies up for first annual Canadian food safety awards

Finalists for the first-annual GFTC Food Safety Recognition Awards have been announced.

Companies were named in two categories. Skilcor Foods, a breaded meat manufacturer in Brampton, Ont., and the Weston Bakeries plant in Amherst, N.S., are both finalists for the Excellence Award, which recognizes food manufacturers.

Up for the Allied Trades Award are: Sani Marc Group, a maker of specialty cleaning products to the food industry, based in Victoriaville, Que., and Axiom Millwrighting and Fabrication in Cambridge, Ont. The Allied Trades Award recognizes companies who supply and provide services to the food industry.

Winners in each category will be announced during the Safe Food Canada Conference, Feb. 26 in Brampton, Ont.

The GFTC Food Safety Awards were created by the Guelph Food Technology Centre in Guelph, Ont.

GFTC's marketing manager, Lise Smedmor, said her organization had noticed that there were several food safety awards programs in the U.S., but none in Canada.

“So we decided to create one,” Smedmor said. “We have a lot of food safety success stories here.”

To be considered for an award, companies had to provide a series of food-safety related documents to a steering committee set up by GFTC to evaluate all entrants.

That committee–made up of food safety experts in government, universities, supermarket chains and associations–chose the finalists and will also pick the winners.

The awards program is being headed buy Paul Medeiros, director of consulting services at GFTC. He called the caliber of submissions exceptional. "We should be very pleased at how well Canadian companies are doing to ensure the safety of food in Canada.”

In addition to the Food Excellence and Allied Trades awards being handed out next month, a yet-to-be-named person will be given a Leadership Award. That award recognizes an individual’s efforts in food safety.