New Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidance goes beyond poultry barns to cover all animal slaughtering and processing facilities.
Previous OSHA guidance only applied to poultry establishments. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is in poultry plants but isn’t charged with the safety of poultry employees. That’s
Continue Reading OSHA puts meat and poultry industries under its wing to protect all employees
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) renewed a cooperative agreement with a formal signing on Aug.1.
The FSIS workforce is viewed as critical to the day-to-day oversight and inspection operations for meat, poultry, and egg products at the
Continue Reading USDA gets employee safety training and OSHA gets access to food facilities under new MOU
Those OSHA fines for not protecting employees from the coronavirus are getting blow-back from both the industry and the union.
The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) issued a statement after Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, SD, and JBS USA in Greeley, CO, were hit with fines totaling about $29,000. Both
Continue Reading Blowback from industry and union on OSHA for Smithfield/JBS fines
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a second large meat production company for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus.
Nearly 300 JBS employees in Greeley, CO, were infected with the COVID-19 virus since March and seven died. Six worked in
Continue Reading OSHA fines JBS beef plant in Colorado for failing to protect employees from virus
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. in Sioux Falls, SD, for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus. OSHA proposed a penalty of $13,494, the maximum allowed by law.
Based in Smithfield, VA, Smithfield Foods Inc. will
Continue Reading Smithfield appeals OSHA fine for not protecting meat plant employees from COVID-19
The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last month signed a two-year alliance to provide Meat Institute members, the public, and other stakeholders with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help employee protections..
But since
Continue Reading OSHA’s agreement with Meat Institute may be one toke over the line
The unions are down to one issue with the USDA about new inspection protocols for market hogs, and it is not food safety. After tossing out challenges to how USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service assigns inspectors, federal Judge Joan N. Ericksen agreed to hear the “line speed” issue.
Ericksen
Continue Reading USDA gets all but the line speed issue thrown out of court
Dear Editor,
Editor Dan Flynn’s Jan. 12 letter supporting the USDA’s new swine slaughter rule perpetuates so many falsehoods, it merits a lengthy response. Among other things, the new rule removes all line speed limits in pig slaughter plants. Despite Flynn’s claims, which were based on his visit to
Continue Reading Letter to the Editor: Line speeds, worker safety are real concerns
To get a “speed waiver” to run an “evisceration line” at up to 175 birds per minute, rather than the current 140 bpm, is going to require poultry businesses to jump through a few more hoops at USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
While most people don’t have a
Continue Reading Poultry line speed waivers possible if producers meet new criteria
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Tyson Foods $263,498 for 15 “serious” and two “repeated” workplace safety violations at the company’s chicken processing facility in Center, TX. 
According to OSHA inspectors, the violations by the one of the nation’s largest meat and poultry processors
Continue Reading Tyson Foods fined $263K for OSHA violations at Texas chicken plant
