Smithfield Foods, Inc. safety record at a glance
Smithfield Foods, Inc. has been the subject of 9 Cal/OSHA inspections in California since 2000, opened between Dec 4, 2014 and Oct 23, 2022. 4 of them were accident inspections. 5 of them produced citations, 16 in all: 4 serious. Inspectors proposed $134,920 in penalties; after appeals and settlements the current total is $75,945. The largest single penalty, $34,700, came from an inspection opened May 27, 2020 in Vernon. 2 worker deaths were investigated. That places the employer at #737 of 122,854 California employers in the database by penalties.
Industry as coded by the inspecting office: Manufacturing; Wholesale Trade. Worksites in Vernon, Los Angeles.
Every inspection, newest first
Click a date for the citations in that inspection.
| Opened | City | Why | Result | Proposed | Penalty | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 23, 2022 | Vernon | Fatality or catastrophe | death no citations | 0 | 0 | Mar 14, 2023 |
| Jan 18, 2022 | Vernon | Accident | 1 citation 1 serious | $18,000 | $5,735 | open |
| Oct 21, 2021 | Los Angeles | Accident | 2 citations | $9,770 | $1,060 | Feb 14, 2023 |
| Dec 31, 2020 | Vernon | Fatality or catastrophe | open, no citations yet | 0 | 0 | open |
| Sep 10, 2020 | Vernon | Fatality or catastrophe | death no citations | 0 | 0 | Sep 10, 2021 |
| May 27, 2020 | Vernon | Referral | 8 citations 1 serious | $58,100 | $34,700 | Jan 3, 2022 |
| Apr 11, 2019 | Vernon | Accident | 3 citations 2 serious | $25,800 | $24,450 | Jan 29, 2024 |
| Mar 19, 2019 | Los Angeles | Complaint | no citations | 0 | 0 | May 30, 2019 |
| Dec 4, 2014 | Vernon | Accident | 2 citations | $23,250 | $10,000 | Feb 2, 2017 |
Also recorded as: Smithfield Foods; Smithfield Foods Inc.; Smithfield Foods Inc.
The rules this employer was cited under
- 8 CCR 3203, Injury and Illness Prevention Program: 6 citations, 1 serious, $27,600
- 8 CCR 3314, Lockout and cleaning of machinery: 2 citations, 1 serious, $19,060
- 8 CCR 3650, Industrial trucks, operating rules: 1 citation, $10,000
- 8 CCR 4070: 1 citation, 1 serious, $5,850
- 8 CCR 3999, Hand tools: 1 citation, 1 serious, $5,735
- 8 CCR 342, Reporting serious injuries and deaths: 1 citation, $5,000
- 8 CCR 4650: 1 citation, $1,125
- 8 CCR 5162, Emergency eyewash and shower: 1 citation, $1,125
Accidents investigated
Local pages: Los Angeles employment lawyer.
How to read this record
Each row is one inspection by Cal/OSHA (or, rarely, federal OSHA) of one worksite. Why is the reason it was opened. Proposed is the penalty the inspector assessed; penalty is the current figure after any appeal or settlement. "Serious" means a realistic possibility of death or serious harm; "willful" and "repeat" carry penalties up to $162,851 each.
Citations document that the employer was told, in writing, what the rule required and when. That knowledge is often the center of a retaliation case: a worker who complained about the hazard an inspector later cited, and was then fired or cut, has a Labor Code 6310 claim, with lost wages and attorney's fees.
Full explainer: how to read a Cal/OSHA record.
If you work, or worked, at Smithfield Foods, Inc.
Write down what you reported, to whom and when, and what changed afterward: shifts, pay, duties, write-ups. Request the inspection file from the Cal/OSHA district office using the activity number on the inspection page. An injury goes through workers' compensation; a firing, demotion or threat after a safety complaint or injury report is an employment claim with a one-year deadline at the Labor Commissioner (Labor Code 6310) and a longer one in court. Free, confidential review: (800) 371-3088 or send what you have.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement data, California inspections. Record last checked Nov 1, 2026. Back to the safety tracker.
About this data: Records come from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement datasets (inspection, violation, accident and accident injury tables), which carry Cal/OSHA's state-plan inspections alongside federal ones. We load every inspection of a California worksite opened since January 1, 2000 and refresh it weekly. Employer names, addresses and industry codes are as the inspecting office recorded them; similar names are grouped where they clearly refer to the same employer. A citation can be reduced, vacated or withdrawn on appeal, and an inspection can stay open for months, so a record can change. Penalties shown as "current" reflect the latest status in the federal file. This page is public information about the employer's regulatory record, not legal advice and not a statement that any person was harmed or any law broken beyond what the record states.