COLUMBIA, MD. — Ten biscuit and cracker manufacturing facilities received recognition for employee safety achievements recently by the Biscuit & Cracker Manufacturers’ Association (B.&C.M.A.).

Bill Quigg, B.&C.M.A. chairman and president of Richmond Baking, Richmond, Ind., presented the awards and observed, “This year’s winners represent 5 million hours worked without an accident.”

The association calculates the performance of members’ facilities according to their DART incident rate, a measurement of workplace safety that counts employee “days away, restricted or transferred,” as described by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It covers cases involving days away from work, restricted work activity and transfers to another job. Its calculation also includes the total number of hours worked by all employees during the calendar year. The B.&C.M.A. also compares bakeries against others of their size when selecting the award winners.

Receiving the 2013 Chairman’s Award for Safety Excellence were:

• For bakeries with less than 200 employees and a DART incident rate of 0 for the year 2012: Bremner Food Group, Tonawanda, N.Y.; Chattanooga Bakery, Chattanooga, Tenn.; D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Co., Cuba, N.Y.; Dare Foods, Spartanburg, S.C.; and two locations of Newly Weds Foods, Mount Pleasant, Texas, and Springdale, Ark.
• For facilities with less than 500 employees and a DART of 0: Kellogg, Charlotte, N.C.
• For locations with less than 800 employees and a DART of 0: Kellogg, Rome, Ga.; and Mondel?z Canada, Toronto (East York).
• For sites with more than 800 employees and a DART of 2.9: Mondel?z International, Chicago.

In a related development, the B.&C.M.A. also recognized the year’s top achieving correspondence course student with the Vander Heide Award. In 2013, it went to Michael J. Downing, production supervisor at Bremner Food Group, Princeton, Ky. It was presented by Stu Vander Heide of Schulze & Burch Biscuit Co., Spring Lake, Mich., and Mr. Downing’s Princeton colleague Terry Melton along with Darren Baker, vice-president, Bremner Food Group, St. Louis.