OSHA fines Louisiana food manufacturer $124K for chemical, electrical and other hazards after evacuation sends workers to hospital

BATON ROUGE, La. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Louisiana food manufacturing company for 25 serious and one other violation for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals, electrical dangers and fall hazards.

OSHA discovered the violations after an inspection of the Madisonville facility operated by Diversified Foods and Seasonings LLC. The agency inspected the plant after an evacuation of the facility sent workers to the hospital as a precaution on Oct. 16, 2015.

“Worker safety and health must be an absolute priority for every employer,” said Jason D. Coffey, OSHA’s acting area director in Baton Rouge. “No worker should go to work not knowing which of the many hazards may injure them on any given day. That is simply unacceptable.”

The Diversified Foods and Seasonings citations include multiple violations of OSHA’s process safety management regulations; exposing workers to hazardous chemicals, respiratory protection, electrical hazards, and the failure to provide fall protection to employees.

Proposed penalties for the employer total $124,000.

Link to citations:

• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/DiversifiedFoodsandSeasoningsLLC_1099140.pdf
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/DiversifiedFoodsandSeasoningsLLC_1100500.pdf

Headquartered in Mandeville, Diversified Food and Seasonings has three manufacturing facilities in Theodore, Madisonville and in Nebraska in Nebraska City. The company has about 270 employees, with 60 workers in Madisonville. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Baton Rouge Area Office at 225-298-5458.