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.

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.

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Do you see the potential for a worker safety and consumer relations disaster in that?

In July 2015, the city water supply in Flint, Michigan, was revealed to be disastrously unsafe. In fact, the water quality in Flint had been poor for years, but it wasn’t until an independent study conducted by a professor from Virginia Tech University was released in September 2015, that steps were taken to reduce residents’ exposure to dangerous levels of lead. In fact, in an attempt to reassure Flint residents that their water was safe, Flint Mayor Dayne Walling drank a cup of tap water during a televised news conference on July 9.

The rest of Michigan, and many communities outside Michigan, began shipping bottled water to Flint.

Consumers take adulterated food and beverages very seriously. That’s why employers in the food production and processing industries must care when it comes to possible contaminants in food—a problem with food quality can result in lost sales, lost jobs, and an increase in regulatory oversight.

Here are some problems that OSHA has noted recently in food production and processing that could have an impact not only on workers’ health but also on a company’s reputation for producing food and beverages that are safe to eat.

Housekeeping Hazards

One of the most common causes of adulterated food is a lack of sanitation in the workplace. That’s what happened after a roof leak and two sprinkler system failures at a ConAgra peanut butter manufacturing plant in Sylvester, Georgia, in 2007. The moisture contamination promoted the growth of salmonella, a common contaminant in peanuts. More than 400 people were sickened, and the plant was shut down for renovation.

But employers still neglect sanitation in food preparation and processing. In July, 2016, the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in Live Oak, Florida, was cited for not keeping floors, work spaces, and passageways well-maintained in a way that would facilitate cleaning.

Cleanliness is often said to be next to godliness—but food production and processing facilities would do well to remember that it is also next to consumer confidence.

Careless Hazardous Chemical Handling

In 2007, toothpaste imported from China was found to be contaminated with toxic levels of diethylene glycol—a chemical used in antifreeze. The substance, which is illegal for this use in the United States, was included deliberately in the imported toothpaste as a thickener and sweetener.

Could it happen here? Yes; it is most likely to occur as the result of using contaminated ingredients imported from elsewhere—as when wheat from China that was contaminated with toxic melamine was used in pet foods manufactured in other places, and then sold in the United States.

It could also happen unintentionally, as a result of careless handling of either chemicals or products. At the Pilgrim’s Pride facility in Live Oak, for example, the facility was cited for mislabeling one pH-adjusting chemical as a different pH-adjusting chemical. In addition, workers were allegedly not receiving hazardous chemical training.

Sanitizing products are another chemical hazard that can contaminate food products, so careful handling of sanitizing chemicals is extremely important in a food-processing setting. But workers at Bluebonnet Foods in San Antonio, Texas, were allegedly exposed to carelessly handled sanitizing chemicals, according to citations issued in July 2016.

If you could have an accident in which employees are exposed to chemical hazards, you could also be at risk of an incident that contaminates your product. Whenever food is involved, careful chemical handling is called for.

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For more information or assistance with your Environmental and Health & Safety regulatory compliance needs, contact Ralph Carito at Total Environmental & Safety, LLC (Total) at rcarito@TotalEnviron.com or 908-442-8599.