5. Candymaker failed to evacuate workers before deadly factory explosion
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It has been a difficult year for food processing companies, as one employer was faulted for failing to evacuate workers from a manufacturing plant before a deadly explosion and others were cited by federal workplace safety regulators for serious injuries.
In the failure to evacuate case, an R.M. Palmer Co. facility in West Reading, Pennsylvania, was issued a citation and proposed fines by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration after seven workers were killed in late March in an explosion caused by a natural gas leak.
The report on fatalities at the candymaker was the fifth-most-read workers comp-related story on Business Insurance’s website in 2023.
Another worker death in late 2022 led to a large penalty against a specialty frozen pizza manufacturer. OSHA cited Gurnee, Illinois-based Miracapo Pizza Co. for 16 willful egregious violations. The employee had been cleaning a spiral conveyor used to cool pizza when her head was caught in the machinery.
OSHA proposed penalties of $2.8 million following the workplace death.
The company has since contested the citation and the appeal is pending.
OSHA cited several food companies this year over workplace amputations, including a $1.9 million proposed penalty against Cincinnati-based Zwanenberg Food Group USA, which is one of the largest food processors in the country.
The company was cited following an October 2022 incident in which a worker fell into an industrial blender. The temporary worker was attempting to sanitize equipment at the time of the incident.
Zwanenberg was again cited this month after a temporary worker’s finger amputation in June.
