Taylor Farms, one of North America’s largest salad producers, repeatedly failed to submit federally required workplace injury reports at facilities where workers suffered fatal or serious injuries, federal records show.
The Salinas, California-based company operates 30 facilities globally with 25,000 employees. Over the past five years, at least 17 of its U.S. sites were required to file annual OSHA Form 300A logs detailing workplace injuries, but records indicate only five to seven facilities complied within the following year. The annual deadline for such filings is March 2.
OSHA and state safety regulators have cited Taylor Farms for machine hazards, amputations, and training failures since 2021, levying $1.8 million in penalties. The company has disputed more than half of its citations since 2016, a rate higher than the roughly 25% typically seen in the food manufacturing sector.
A worker died last year at the company’s vegetable processing plant in Swedesboro, New Jersey, after sustaining injuries while cleaning equipment. OSHA fined Taylor Farms more than $1 million for “willfully and repeatedly” violating safety requirements at the facility. In November, 13 workers were hospitalized following an ammonia leak at a processing plant in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, where OSHA proposed $23,000 in citations.
Taylor Farms acknowledged reporting gaps in its filings but stated they have been addressed. The company said it recently invested in new workplace safety reporting software and disputed the OSHA citations related to the Swedesboro and North Kingstown incidents without publicly detailing the grounds for its objections.
The company has also faced scrutiny over a U.S. cyclospora outbreak linked to its lettuce from Mexico, which resulted in two deaths and thousands of illnesses nationwide. Many of Taylor Farms’ workers are hired through temporary staffing agencies, according to records.
