Health & Safety
As a producer, manufacturer and processor of nuts and nut-related products, we are subject to extensive food and employee safety laws and regulations. We place a high priority on employee health and safety as part of our continuous improvement culture. Our total occupational injury rate continues to remain below the food manufacturing industry average at most of our manufacturing facilities. We continue to enhance our safety programs by investing in systems and controls focused on injury and accident prevention. During the 2021 fiscal year, we were able to increase employee participation in our voluntary Safety Observation Program, and we implemented a cloud-based environmental health and safety platform that we believe will help us to better measure and monitor data in this area, as well as predict and prevent safety risks.
COVID-19: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented a number of health and safety protocols to protect our employees, and we regularly monitor such protocols for best practices and improvements. In 2020, we instituted a COVID-19 task force to help oversee and promote the health and safety of our employees. This task force helped guide our establishment of policies and practices in accordance with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, federal, state, and local governments, and other health authorities. The actions we took to help ensure the safety and wellness of our employees include, among other things, requiring employees to practice social distancing at our facilities, temperature checks for employees, frequent sanitation of our facilities and equipment, supplying personal protective equipment to our employees, not reducing compensation for employees that are required to quarantine due to exposure to COVID-19, working to educate our employees about vaccines and allowing our corporate staff to work from home. We also hosted several free on-site vaccination clinics for our employees and their family members. We continue to monitor guidance and best practices to help ensure the health and safety of our employees.