SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Diamond, the leading U.S. almond grower and manufacturer, today announced that their Sacramento manufacturing facility was named "Plant of the Year of the Pinnacle Club"  by the American Council for Food Safety & Quality, also known as the DFA of California. The Council, with state-of-the-art labs and testing facilities, promotes better understanding of important food safety issues among growers, processors and purchasers of dried fruit and tree nuts. It has a formal working partnership agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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At the annual meeting in July, the Council recognized top performing members and companies in the area of food quality and safety as the "Pinnacle Club". " This recognition is based on scores from the organization's tri-annual, unannounced GMP/sanitation audits, certification of HACCP plans and achievement towards higher levels of Food Safety certification.  Blue Diamond's award recognizes it as the "best of the best" in a group of approximately 75 plants and facilities inspected.

"We are honored by this award and its recognition of Blue Diamond's outstanding performance," said Brian Dunning, Blue Diamond's Director of Corporate Quality Assurance. "As a company, we have a long-standing commitment to maintain the highest level of quality assurance, production and sanitation standards in the industry. Our staff performs at the pinnacle level every day to assure these safety and quality standards are met."

The award also affirms the increasing importance to both consumer and industrial buyers of food safety and quality. "Within Blue Diamond's Industrial Division, approximately 70 percent of our product is exported to over 90 countries," notes Bill Morecraft, General Manager, Blue Diamond Industrial Division. "This award offers even more assurance to our domestic and overseas customer's that Blue Diamond maintains the highest product standards and can be counted on to deliver products that are safe as well as delicious and nutritious."

About Blue Diamond

Blue Diamond (www.bluediamond.com), owned by over half of California's almond growers, is the leading grower and manufacturer of almond products in the U.S. and a powerful force in world markets. In addition to Blue Diamond consumer-branded almond products, the company has a strong industrial presence as an ingredient for processed foods, as well as for bulk purchase. Almonds are California's Number One food export. California almonds rank among the nation's Top Ten exports and provide the world with over 80 percent of its almond supply, with nearly 70 percent of the crop exported to over 90 countries. Blue Diamond is headquartered in Sacramento, California.

About the American Council for Food Safety & Quality

The American Council for Food Safety & Quality (www.agfoodsafety.org) was created nearly 100 years ago to promote better understanding among growers, processors and purchases of dried fruit and tree nuts. It has expanded well beyond its initial mission to include a full-service food laboratory, sanitation audits, HACCP certification, technical research, product inspections, arbitrations and ever-increasing international involvement.

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SOURCE Blue Diamond

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