Looking back at the Health & Safety Excellence Awards 2026, held on 30th April at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, the Health & Safety Excellence Award in the Food & Beverage category went to Danone Nutricia Wexford, in recognition of a proactive, behaviour-driven safety system that is delivering sustained, measurable results across one of Ireland's most significant food and beverage manufacturing operations.

At the core of Danone Nutricia Wexford's approach is the Incident Elimination DMS, a structured system that embeds real-time decision-making, risk prevention, and behavioural accountability into daily operations. Integrated with Sphera, the programme gives the site the data infrastructure to identify, track, and act on safety risks before they result in harm, supporting a safety culture built on visibility, ownership, and continuous improvement. The Safety Pillar underpinning the whole approach is structured around the Plan Do Check Act model, providing a disciplined framework that connects strategy to on-the-ground action and ensures that safety improvements are sustained rather than episodic. The results speak clearly: reductions in first aid incidents, increased reporting of unsafe acts, and the preservation of a long-standing zero Lost Time Incident record are the tangible outcomes of a programme that has embedded safety not as a compliance function but as a genuine organisational value.

The judging panel described Danone Nutricia Wexford's entry as clear, descriptive, and well-supported by data, praising the structured approach and the effective use of technology in driving real impact across the site. The combination of the PDCA model with the Incident Elimination DMS and Sphera integration was highlighted as a strong and coherent system, with the reductions in first aid incidents and increased reporting of unsafe acts identified as evidence of meaningful cultural change. The judges also noted further opportunity in strengthening contractor safety management, pointing to a programme with both strong foundations and a clear pathway for continued development.

Stay tuned for the Health & Safety Excellence Awards 2027 cycle, where organisations from across Ireland will once again have the opportunity to showcase their commitment to workplace health and safety excellence.

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