Video Recalls 2021 Poultry Workers Deaths by Liquid Nitrogen
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (USCSB), an independent, non‑regulatory federal agency, this week released a video recalling the Jan. 28, 2021 nitrogen leak at a Foundation Food Group plant that killed six workers and injured three.
It’s an educational video, a dramatization, not tape of the actual event, but it serves to remind food processors of the dangers of nitrogen and the need for personnel safety training. It’s worth a look here.
Inside a liquid nitrogen freezer in the chicken processing plant in Gainesville, Ga., a single part was bent, causing the freezer to overflow. Liquid nitrogen escaped the freezer and vaporized, flooding the room where two employees worked. They died of asphyxiation, as did four more employees trying to rescue them, and three more rescuers were seriously injured.
“This preventable tragedy underscores the importance of safety leadership, systems and training,” Sylvia Johnson, a USCB board member, says on the video. “FFG lacked critical monitoring equipment and alarms. Management did not provide workers with adequate training or equipment to respond safety to a liquid nitrogen release.”
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.