OSHA has inspected Alpha Baking Co., Inc. 22 times in Illinois since 1985.
The latest one began on Sep 19, 2025 on a referral, in Chicago; the case is still open.
Those inspections ended with 74 citation items: 53 serious, 12 repeat and 9 other-than-serious.
Penalties were first proposed at $1,416,327 and now stand at $834,075, 41% lower after settlements or reviews.
Lockout/tagout comes up most often in these citations: 16 items under 1910.147.
How that compares: the median penalty per cited inspection for manufacturing employers since 2015 is $4,873, and Alpha Baking Co., Inc. averages $78,520 (10 cited inspections).
1 inspection on this page followed a fatal incident.
Alpha Baking Co., Inc. also files yearly injury logs with OSHA, summarized below.
It reported 11 severe injuries to OSHA since 2015.
Citation items per year, by inspection date.
Illinois · latest 90 days of OSHA records
413employers cited
2 of them in the same industry
Get notified the morning OSHA posts each new citation in Illinois: the employer, the site address, the rules broken and the penalty.
Incident on Oct 9, 2021: Employee amputates fingertip when caught in conveyor chain
At 6:15 a.m. on October 9, 2021, an employee was cleaning a conveyor chain at a commercial bakery while working alone. The employee was removing bread build up to ensure that the equipment was running properly. The conveyor machine was in operation when the employee noticed a buildup of grease on the chain. The employee was wearing a latex glove and used his hand to wipe away the grease when the glove got caught and pulled his right hand into the chain and sprocket. The employee's right index finger was amputated, and he was hospitalized.
Incident on Dec 9, 2019: Employee suffers finger laceration when reaching below bread
At 4:00 a.m. on December 9, 2019, Employee # 1 was cleaning the infeed area on a Bread Slicer Bagger. Employee # 1 removed the guard and reached below the equipment to clean the area. She suffered a laceration to her right thumb, index, and middle fingers with the blade of the bread slicer. She was treated without hospitalization.
Incident on May 27, 2014 (fatal): Employee caught in between gear arm is killed
At 9:45 a.m. on May 27, 2014, an employee was watching two members of his maintenance crew make a repair to correct the timing on an encoder gear box on a Bakery Equipment/Winkler (BEW) loader. Once the repair was completed, the loader was restarted to verify that the timing was adjusted properly. At that time, the guards that were removed prior to the repair were still off the loader. The employee wanted to check the oil level of the encoder gear box. At the time of the incident the back and north guards of the BEW loader had yet to be replaced from the repair of the gear box timing that had just been completed. Before the guards for the loader where reinstalled, the employee, in order to obtain a better view, placed his head into the opening, where the guard would normally be placed, and exposed himself to a moving part (gear arm) of the loader that intermittently rotated every 17 seconds. While the employee's head was in position over the top of the gear box, the gear arm rotated and pinched his head against the frame of the machine and caused a fatal injury. According to the Postmortem Examination Report from the Office of the Medical Examiner, the employee died from blunt force trauma of the head as a consequence of being struck by a gear arm.
From the Form 300A summaries employers file with OSHA each year. Rate = recordable cases per 100 full-time workers.
In 2025, the Chicago site logged 46 recordable injuries or illnesses among about 577 workers: 7.7 per 100 full-time workers, against a median of 3.6 for its industry. Those cases cost 2,014 days away from work.
Site and year
Workers
Cases
Days-away cases
Rate
Industry median
Alpha Baking Polk
Chicago · 2025
577
46
28
7.7
3.6
Alpha Baking Fullerton
Chicago · 2025
93
4
4
4.1
3.6
Alpha Baking Aurora
Chicago · 2025
51
4
2
7.6
2.6
Alpha Baking Benton Harbor
Chicago · 2025
8
0
0
0.0
2.6
Alpha Baking Appleton
Chicago · 2025
5
0
0
0.0
2.6
Polk
Chicago · 2024
502
64
39
11.7
3.6
Lyndale
Chicago · 2024
285
33
24
10.4
3.6
Fullerton
Chicago · 2024
100
4
3
3.7
3.6
Severe injury reports
Employers must report any work-related amputation, in-patient hospitalization or loss of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours. 11 reports on file, the 6 most recent shown.
An employee was sweeping a production area when dough became stuck in a conveyor. He was removing the dough when his glove got stuck to the conveyor, pulling his left hand and arm into the tunnel of the conveyor. The employee was hospitalized with a broken arm. The conveyor was not guarded at the time.
Apr 16, 2025, Chicago: Amputation · amputations involving bone loss · other finger(s) n.e.c.
A mechanic was adjusting the timing on a conveyor and was reinstalling the machine guard when their left index finger got caught on the chain and sprocket and was partially amputated with bone loss.
Nov 14, 2024, Chicago: Amputation · amputations, avulsions, enucleations unspecified · finger or thumb tip(s), nail(s)
An employee was baking dough and went to grab some dough when the machine started and the knife lacerated his right ring finger, resulting in a fingertip amputation. The machine was guarded at the time.
Aug 9, 2024, Chicago: Amputation · amputations, avulsions, enucleations unspecified · finger or thumb tip(s), nail(s)
An employee was unjamming a lid when their left thumb tip was caught between the lid and a conveyor and was amputated.
May 23, 2022, Chicago: Amputation · amputations · fingertip(s)
At 1:00 p.m., on May 23, 2022, an employee was pulling the strap to close a roll-up trailer door when the door came down on his left ring fingertip. The fingertip was amputated.
Oct 9, 2021, Chicago: Hospitalization, amputation · amputations · fingertip(s)
An employee was putting a chain back onto a chain and sprocket mechanism when the glove on his right hand got caught in the mechanism, resulting in an amputation of the right index fingertip.
The rules behind these citations
Current text from the Code of Federal Regulations. Some citations were issued under older wording.
(6) Periodic inspection. (i) The employer shall conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedure at least annually to ensure that the procedure and the requirements of this standard are being followed.
29 CFR 1910.147(c)(7)(i)
(7) Training and communication. (i) The employer shall provide training to ensure that the purpose and function of the energy control program are understood by employees and that the knowledge and skills required for the safe application, usage, and removal of the energy controls are acquired by employees. The training shall include the following:
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Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA enforcement data. A citation is OSHA's allegation; employers can contest it, and the status column shows where each item stands. Something wrong on this page? Tell us.
