Latest Meat Processing Headlines
All the headlines from our Meat Processing Topic Page, ordered by recency.
$1 Million Settlement in Class Action over Immigration Raid at Tenn. Meat Plant
Mar 2 2023 // A federal judge has approved a settlement of more than $1 million in a class action lawsuit that challenged a federal immigration raid at an eastern Tennessee meatpacking plant where about 100 people were arrested. The...
Latino Workers at Tennessee Meat Plant Reach $1.2M Settlement in Immigration Raid
Feb 28 2023 // Latino workers at a Tennessee meat processing plant have reached a $1.2 million settlement in a lawsuit over a 2018 immigration raid in which they were “targeted by federal agents” because of their ethnicity,...
Midwest Meat Plant Cleaning Service Fined $1.5M for Hiring Minors
Feb 22 2023 // MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – One of the country’s largest cleaning services for food processing companies employed more than 100 children in dangerous jobs at 13 meatpacking plants across the country, the U.S. Department of...
Lawsuit Accuses Largest U.S. Meat Producers of Wage Fixing
Nov 18 2022 // Three meat plant workers have filed a federal lawsuit accusing 11 of the United States’ largest beef and pork producers of conspiring to depress wages and benefits. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Denver on...
Washington Seafood Processing Company to Pay $92,000 Settlement
Jul 14 2022 // A seafood processing company west of Aberdeen, Washington, will pay more than $92,000 in a settlement agreement over water quality violations, Washington state ecology officials said. Pacific Seafood – Westport,...
Minnesota Poultry Producers Wary of Bird Flu’s Return
Feb 10 2022 // Minnesota’s poultry producers are monitoring cases of bird flu found in wild birds in other parts of the United States and Canada. A state veterinarian says it’s an early warning for producers in Minnesota...
Report: Louisiana Seafood Industry Saw $580M in Losses From 2020-21 Hurricanes
Jan 19 2022 // Louisiana’s fisheries and seafood businesses experienced approximately $580 million in total losses resulting from four hurricane between August 2020 to August 2021, according to a new report by the Louisiana Sea...
Bird Flu Found in Wild Duck Could Endanger Poultry Industry
Jan 18 2022 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday confirmed the first case of a highly pathogenic type of avian influenza in a wild bird since 2016 in South Carolina. The virus, Eurasian H5 avian influenza, was found in a wild...
Oregon Meat Distributor Recalls Ground Beef Over E. coli Concerns
Jan 13 2022 // A meat distributor based in Clackamas, Oregon, has recalled more than 28,300 pounds (12,800 kilograms) of ground beef because of concerns the meat may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The raw ground beef products...
Unions Say Meat Plants Relaxed COVID-19 Safety Measures After Outbreaks
Dec 26 2021 // Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, last year assigned a team of dedicated employees to enforce social distancing and sanitize surfaces at a South Dakota slaughterhouse where COVID-19 infected nearly...
Oklahoma Pork Plant Faces $27,000 Penalty Over Unsafe Work Conditions
Dec 3 2021 // A Guymon, Oklahoma processing and packing facility – operated by one of the nation’s largest pork processors – failed to prevent workers from being exposed to repetitive motion injuries and did not record...
Des Moines, Iowa Officials to Investigate Pungent Odor from Pork Plants
Nov 23 2021 // Parts of downtown Des Moines have been so transformed in the past decade by new apartments, trendy shops and microbreweries, it’s sometimes hard to reconcile the present with the not-so-distant past. But one strong...
Pork Plants Allowed to Operate Faster in Trial Program
Nov 12 2021 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday that nine pork plants can apply to operate faster processing-line speeds under a one-year trial, after a federal judge in March struck down a Trump-era rule that removed...
Report Finds Meat Plant Workers’ COVID Cases Much Higher Than Previous Estimates
Oct 28 2021 // Workers at the leading U.S. meatpacking plants experienced cases and death from COVID-19 that were up to three times previous estimates, according to a report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis seen...
Grocer Sues Oregon Beef Producer for $2.7M Over Outbreak
Oct 25 2021 // Lawyers representing New Seasons Market have filed a $2.7 million lawsuit against an Oregon beef producer accusing the company of negligence for delivering beef tainted with E. coli in 2019, court records show. Several...
Chicago Meat Plant to Pay $1.1M to Settle Race Discrimination, Retaliation Suit
Oct 13 2021 // Federal authorities say a Chicago meat processing company that was charged with unlawfully harassing black employees, rejecting them for hire, and firing a black employee for complaining, will pay more than $1 million to...
Judge Says Evidence Destroyed in Georgia Poultry Plant Deaths
Oct 11 2021 // The Georgia judge overseeing lawsuits brought after workers were killed at a chicken processing plant is weighing sanctions against a freezer manufacturer after crucial evidence was thrown away. “It makes your client...
Agriculture Department Readying Waivers to Address Pork Plants’ Processing Speed
Oct 8 2021 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a proposal for a waiver system for hog plants forced by a federal court to slow processing lines, Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. Waivers to allow plants to speed up...
Louisiana’s Seafood Industry Struggling After Ida
Sep 24 2021 // Louisiana’s oyster farmers, crabbers, shrimpers and anglers are nothing if not adaptable, producing millions of pounds of seafood annually, often in water that was dry land a generation ago. They’ve fought off...
Crews Battle Large Blaze at Nebraska Meatpacking Plant
Sep 14 2021 // Firefighters were still battling a blaze on Sept. 13 at a Grand Island meatpacking plant 12 hours after first arriving on the scene. Fire crews were first called to the JBS plant just before 10 p.m. on Sept. 12, Battalion...
