Village Hearth bread maker's Sun Prairie facility cited for OSHA violations

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. -- Minnesota-based bread maker Pan-O-Gold Baking Company, which operates in Wisconsin as Village Hearth, faces over $250,000 in proposed penalties for OSHA violations at its Sun Prairie facility, the U.S. Department of Labor said Monday.

OSHA found six serious violations at the location on 1000 Wilburn Road as well as two repeat violations. The citations came after an investigation that was conducted between Nov. 20, 2023 and March 14, 2024. The investigation was prompted by an October 2023 incident at the facility that the Department of Labor said left an employee with disabling injuries.

Documents from the Department of Labor allege multiple instances of neglect at the Sun Prairie facility. For example, OSHA cites a March 10 incident where workers were exposed to potential injury while changing the blades of a bun slicer machine because proper protective equipment was not used.

Additionally, OSHA found that Pan-O-Gold did not conduct annual inspections of its energy control procedures on some of its machinery, exposing employees to to moving parts while they were performing maintenance.

This is the second time since 2019 that OSHA has investigated the facility. The last investigation came after multiple workers had portions of their finger amputated in incidents involving machinery.

Pan-O-Gold was initially fined over $26,000 stemming from one of those incidents. That fine was lowered to $15,912 following an informal settlement.

The latest investigation found that violations identified in 2019 still persist. Specifically, Pan-O-Gold was cited in both 2019 and 2024 for not developing, documenting and utilizing procedures to control potentially hazardous energy. In both instances, OSHA said that this failure led to employees being exposed to machine hazards when performing maintenance on a bread slicer.

OSHA also found that issues with Pan-O-Gold's lockout-tagout procedures that were present in 2019 had persisted into 2024. In 2019, that led to a bread line slicer not being turned off while employees were adjusting it. In 2024, OSHA found that a lockout device wasn't properly used, meaning employees were exposed to machine hazards while working on circular bun slicing blades.

In total, Pan-O-Gold faces $263,953 in proposed penalties stemming from the violations. The company was notified of the violations last month, however the Department of Labor formally announced the proposed penalties on Monday.

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