Employer record, Cal/OSHA and OSHA inspections

Very Special Chocolates Cal/OSHA Inspections and Citations

Benjamin Eghbali, Esq.Legal notes by Benjamin Eghbali, Esq.,

Very Special Chocolates: 3 inspections, 5 citations and $6,225 in penalties, latest opened Nov 21, 2008.

Every Cal/OSHA and federal OSHA inspection of a California workplace opened since 2000: 238,466 inspections of 122,854 employers, 447,188 citations, $586,238,760 in penalties, 5,717 deaths investigated.

Very Special Chocolates safety record at a glance

Very Special Chocolates has been the subject of 3 Cal/OSHA inspections in California since 2000, opened between Sep 27, 2000 and Nov 21, 2008. 1 of them were planned inspections. 1 of them produced citations, 5 in all: 2 serious. Inspectors proposed $10,780 in penalties; after appeals and settlements the current total is $6,225. The largest single penalty, $6,225, came from an inspection opened Nov 21, 2008 in Azusa. That places the employer at #20,903 of 122,854 California employers in the database by penalties.

Industry as coded by the inspecting office: Manufacturing. Worksites in Azusa.

Every inspection, newest first

Click a date for the citations in that inspection.

OpenedCityWhyResultProposedPenaltyClosed
Nov 21, 2008AzusaPlanned5 citations 2 serious$10,780$6,225Aug 28, 2009
Feb 20, 2002AzusaComplaintno citations00Mar 18, 2002
Sep 27, 2000AzusaAccidentno citations00Apr 17, 2002

Also recorded as: Very Special Chocolates Inc.

The rules this employer was cited under

Accidents investigated

Sep 6, 2000, Azusa. Employee has hand caught in injection machine Inspection

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 Very Special Chocolates

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.

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