When a worker was literally cooked to death in an oven at the Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, tuna factory in Santa Fe Springs, California, in October 2012, consumers of canned tuna gave a collective shudder. But all types of food production can be hazardous to workers—and as Upton Sinclair demonstrated when he wrote The Jungle, worker safety might not turn heads, but the safety of the food supply almost certainly will. Don’t give consumers cause to turn away from your product by neglecting worker health and safety.
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Here are some recent issues the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has noted in food production facilities.
Amputation Hazards
Questions about what’s in the sausage are as old as, well, sausage, and consumers do tend to worry about the adulteration of foodstuffs. Combine that with the risk of amputations in the food production industry—after all, almost all food production involves cutting, chopping, slicing, and dicing—if not for the food itself, then in the packaging process—and you have a workplace hazard that’s also a potential public relations disaster.
At La Espiga de Oro, Inc., in Houston, Texas, workers were allegedly exposed to amputation hazards created by unguarded machinery while making tortillas in June 2016. The facility’s tumbler machine and tortilla chip piston cutter had unguarded points of operation; cooling conveyors at the facility lacked guards around their rollers.
Don’t give consumers a reason to avoid your product by exposing workers to amputation hazards.
Unguarded Edges and Openings
Remember Donovan Garcia? In 2006, he fell into a vat of dark chocolate at a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It took more than 2 hours for fellow workers and first responders to get him out—at which point, Garcia said, he had completely lost his taste for the stuff. It wouldn’t be surprising if customers agreed, especially after a Canadian worker died in a similar incident in 2009.
Unguarded edges and openings can create a hazard for workers. If they open into process containers, they can become an issue affecting your customers, too. But OSHA still finds unguarded edges in food production and processing facilities: in August 2016, OSHA cited the Great Southern Peanut processing plant for multiple unguarded stairs and walkways and for railings that did not meet minimum height requirements.
Don’t cook your company’s goose by accidentally mixing in your workers.
Lockout/Tagout Hazards
Jose Melena, the Bumble Bee tuna plant worker who died, was putting tuna cans in an oven when he somehow entered the oven and became fatally trapped. Nobody knows why Melena entered the oven—but sometimes, workers enter ovens or put their heads, hands, and other body parts into the point of operation into a piece of machinery when they perform servicing or maintenance. Unless they’re following proper lockout/tagout procedures, they could be injured, trapped, or killed if the machine starts up or cycles without warning.
According to OSHA, Bluebonnet Foods, L.P., of San Antonio, Texas, was exposing its workers to preventable risks by failing to lock out and tag out ovens while workers were inside. Bluebonnet produces slow-roasted, fried, and grilled meats; sauces; and other products for retail, food service, and food manufacturing industries. According to citations issued in July 2016, workers at Bluebonnet were placing chicken racks in ovens and removing them without protection against unexpected startup.
Do you see the potential for a worker safety and consumer relations disaster in that?
Tomorrow we’ll look at common food industry health hazards.