The Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., Kansas City, Kan., was cited for 20 alleged serious safety violations which carried a $111,500 proposed penalty, according to OSHA.
The firm is in the business of wholesale food products marketing and overseeing of contract warehousing, receiving and distribution operations.
OSHA Regional Administrator Charles Adkins, CIH said that Associated Wholesale Grocers has a history of OSHA activity including complaints, referrals and other inspection activity dating back to 1973.
The Serious citations mainly related to OSHA''s Process Safety Management (PSM) standards.
The PSM standards are intended to assure that processes involving highly hazardous chemicals, such as ammonia, are maintained and operated in a safe manner.
The standard is also intended to prevent accidental employee exposure to ammonia and explosion hazards, should a system failure occur.
The remainder of the citations are related to lockout/tagout, emergency response, machine guarding and powered industrial truck deficiencies.
The firm has 15 working days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to either comply or contest them.
by Virginia Sutcliffe