By achieving SHARP status, Boon Edam USA has joined an elite group of small businesses that maintain exemplary health and safety programmes. Businesses must meet several criteria in order to receive SHARP accreditation, including participating in OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program services, and maintaining employee injury and illness rates below the national average for their industry.

“We’ve been working toward SHARP recognition for about four years,” said Patrick Nora, President & Managing Director, Boon Edam Manufacturing, USA. “We started by changing our relationship with safety into a proactive one. Then we started working with OSHA, asking them to come in and help us identify what we needed to do to get to the next level.”

Boon Edam USA developed and implemented various in-house initiatives to remain proactive and work toward SHARP recognition. “We have a safety committee made up of managers and an hourly workforce out on the floor,” said Nora. “This committee leads initiatives to improve safety, but also to improve our culture.” Initiatives include having employees sign a safety pledge, developing training videos, and starting a “near miss” reporting programme.

A formal ceremony is scheduled at the Boon Edam facility for March 2, 2022, when the North Carolina Labor Commissioner will present the organisation with their SHARP certificate.