Cargill volunteers have taught children, in their classrooms and during field trips, how to prevent water pollution, to observe and record plants and animals that make a local creek their home and to perform water quality tests on samples taken from the creek. The kids are planting trees and other wetland vegetation and helping to monitor the wetland's growth and development. Cargill's worldwide safety index dropped to a record low of 3.4 in 1998, marking the ninth consecutive year of improvement. Cargill's safety index is a device that the company uses to measure the frequency and severity of job-related injuries and illnesses in a company that is rapidly expanding both the number of business units and employees. We will set high standards for food safety compared to our competition.
Food safety is the responsibility of all employees.
We promote food safety efforts which generate more business and growth opportunities and which at the same time raise the standard of living for people. Food safety is our way of life. Efforts to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination on meat are among the most pressing issues facing the meat industry today. Cargill's Excel Corp. and a Swedish firm have developed a steam pasteurizing process designed to eliminate pathogenic bacteria on meat and poultry carcasses in the company's processing plants.