In the wake of a U.S. congressional report showing that the industry has failed to prevent the spread of COVID 19 among workers, Reuters subsidiary companies of meat processors have agreed to implement infectious disease preparedness plans at seven U.S. plants.
The agreement was announced on Friday by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA, which said the companies will work with teams of outside experts to develop new policies on engineering, ventilation, visitor screening, cleaning, and personal protective equipment.
OSHA said plants in six states are operated by JBS units Swift Beef Co, Swift Pork Co, JBS Souderton Inc and JBS Green Bay Inc.
JBS USA, the Brazilian parent of JBS SA, said in a statement that the plans it is developing will build on a COVID 19 playbook that the company has already adopted that lays out best practices and provides guidance to plant operators.
In 2020, a total of seven workers at two JBS facilities in Colorado and Wisconsin died from COVID - 19 and nearly 650 employees were tested positive for the disease.
OSHA found that the facilities failed to take steps to protect workers and levied $14,502 in fines.
In January, a Reuters analysis of public data showed that nearly 90% of US processing plants owned by JBS and four other major meat companies had COVID- 19 cases in 2020 and early 2021, and that 269 workers had died during that period.
John Rainwater, an OSHA official in Dallas, Texas, said in a statement that the agency will make sure the agreement with JBS is enforced to prevent mass outbreaks from happening again.
The announcement came two weeks after a U.S. House of Representatives panel released a report saying JBS and other large meat processors failed to adopt measures to stem the spread of COVID - 19.