Produce supplier Taylor Farms frequently failed to submit required annual workplace injury logs to federal regulators over the past five years, according to a Reuters review of federal records. The reporting gaps included at least four facilities where workers were killed or seriously injured. While at least 17 of the company's facilities were required to file these reports based on federal criteria, only five to seven facilities submitted them within the following year between 2021 and 2025.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires most worksites in high-hazard industries to submit annual injury tallies, known as 300A logs, by March 2. Taylor Farms, which is North America's largest salad producer, is currently under scrutiny for a cyclospora outbreak linked to its lettuce that has sickened thousands and caused two deaths. In a statement to Reuters, the company acknowledged the reporting gaps and stated it has addressed the issues, noting that employee safety is a "core operational priority."
Since 2021, Taylor Farms has been cited for nearly $1.8 million in safety violations by OSHA and state regulators. These citations involve machine hazards, amputations, and training failures. Among the facilities missing recent public logs was a New Jersey plant where a worker died in 2023 while cleaning equipment; OSHA subsequently issued more than $1 million in fines for safety violations. Taylor Farms has disputed these and more than half of its total citations since 2016, a rate significantly higher than the industry average of approximately 25%.
For workers and the general public, the lack of consistent injury logs means there is no clear, publicly accessible record of the daily physical risks at specific processing plants or warehouses. A person working at these facilities would notice the impact through the presence or absence of safety transparency regarding incidents like the 2023 worker death in New Jersey or the November ammonia leak in Rhode Island that hospitalized 13 people. Without these logs, safety watchdog groups say it is difficult to evaluate whether a workplace is becoming safer or more dangerous over time.
The knock-on effect of these reporting gaps is that federal regulators at OSHA may have less data to determine where to focus enforcement and inspections. Because the food manufacturing sector has a higher injury rate than general private industry, the absence of data from a major market leader can obscure broader industry trends. Taylor Farms stated it has recently invested in new safety reporting software to address these gaps. Future developments depend on whether the company's new measures result in consistent filings by the March 2 deadline in 2027 and how OSHA resolves current disputed citations.
What happens next: Taylor Farms has disputed several active citations, including a $1 million fine from November 2025 and $23,000 in citations from a Rhode Island incident. The company did not disclose the grounds for its disputes. OSHA did not provide a timeline for when it might respond to the company's reporting rates or resolve the pending citations. State and federal regulators continue to oversee the company's compliance with safety and reporting standards across its farms, processing factories, and warehouses.