Press Release

Starch Europe announces winners of 2016-2017 Safety Awards

Improving safety practices and achieving a safer working environment is a priority for all EU starch producers. Starch Europe announced today the winners of this year’s safety awards.

In 2014, Starch Europe launched the Starch Europe Safety Programme which recognizes the best performing EU starch plants in minimizing accidents at work. Starch Europe companies go beyond all relevant national, EU and international health and safety legislation, to minimize the possibility of accidents occurring.

The Starch Europe Safety Programme grants two types of awards:

The year award – awarded to plants which registered no employee lost workday cases involving days away from work for the calendar year, and no employee and no non-employee workplace fatalities for the calendar year.

The million hour award – awarded to plants which registered 1 million consecutive employee hours without an employee lost workday case and without a workplace-related fatality of an employee or non-employee during the period.

Data are collected on a quarterly basis by PWC from companies participating on a voluntary basis. The collection of this data started from 1 July 2014. PWC ensures the validity and consistency of the data provided and reports on eligible plants for each award.

42 of the 75 starch plants in the EU represented by the 27 member companies of Starch Europe, participated in the safety award scheme from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017¹.

Starch Europe is delighted to announce that compared to last year, the number of plants receiving the Million-Hour Award doubled to 8 plants, as follows:

The Year Award was granted to 13 plants this year. Starch Europe is pleased to announce that the following plants were granted the Year Award:

Our congratulations to the winners.

For further information, please contact:

Jamie Fortescue – 00 32 2 289 67 67 – jamie.fortescue@starch.eu – www.starch.eu

Starch Europe is the trade association which represents the interests of the EU starch industry both at European and international level. Its membership comprises 27 EU starch producing companies, together representing more than 95% of the EU starch industry and, in associate membership, 7 national starch industry associations. The European starch industry manufactures over six hundred products including native starches, modified starches, liquid and solid sweeteners as well as oils, proteins and fibres that are used as ingredients and functional supplements in a vast array of food, feed and industrial applications. In 2016, from 77 starch production facilities in 20 of the 28 EU Member States, the European starch industry processed about 23,6 million tonnes of agricultural raw materials, roughly split between wheat (8.5 million tonnes), maize (8.1 million tonnes), and starch potatoes (7 million tonnes) transformed into 10.7 million tonnes of starch and 5 million tonnes of co-products. With a turnover of 7.6 billion Euros, it also invested about 420 million Euros, of which over 81 million Euros in Research & Development.