SUN PRAIRIE, WI — Bread supplier Pan-O-Gold Baking Co. received a workplace safety citations from US Department of Labor following an injury investigation.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened the investigation after a report of an employee injury at Pan-O-Gold’s Sun Prairie, WI, commercial bakery last October. Inspectors determined the unreported injury occurred when the employee was adjusting a sensor in a bread pattern forming machine.
Following the investigation, OSHA issued Pan-O-Gold citations for two repeat violations for failing to ensure the use of lockout/tagout and energy control procedures. The agency also identified six serious and two other-than-serious violations related to inadequate employee training lockout/tagout energy control, and failure to provide adequate machine guarding, require the use of hand protection, enter description details on the injury log, and report the employee’s hospitalization. As a result, OSHA proposed $262,953 in penalties.
“Pan-O-Gold Baking Company could have prevented this employee from suffering life-altering injuries by implementing required safety procedures to stop the machine from unexpectedly starting-up as he tried to adjust the sensor,” said Chad Greenwood, the OSHA area director in Madison, WI.
This is the second such investigation at the Sun Prairie facility since 2019, when workers were injured as a result of not following lockout/tagout procedures for machine safety.
OSHA’s evaluation of Pan-O-Gold’s overall safety and health management system revealed that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2021, the baking company’s average days away, restricted, or transferred rate for 2020-2022 was more than 160% higher than the nationwide average for commercial bakeries.
The Minnesota-based company, which operates as Village Hearth, had 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings of the investigation.
