Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables · California
Mercer Foods
Modesto, CA · ~389 workers · 5 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.
- D
- Poor Safety Record
- 5.2
- Avg TCR
- 3.3
- Industry avg
- 0
- Fatalities
The verdict
Mercer Foods runs at 158% of its industry's injury rate - more dangerous than the typical Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables workplace, earning a grade D.
- D
- Poor Safety Record
- 5.2
- avg TCR · per 100 workers
- 3.3
- industry benchmark (BLS)
- 82
- recordable injuries tracked
Grade compares Mercer Foods's OSHA Total Case Rate of 5.2 to the Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables BLS benchmark of 3.3 (158% of benchmark) across 5 years of Form 300A filings (2016–2024). <a href="/methodology">See methodology</a> for reporting-limitation caveats.
Injury rate over time
Mercer Foods's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 3.3 industry benchmark.
Where Mercer Foods falls in its industry
126 Freeze-dried, food processing, establishmentsSafer than 51% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 5.3.
Narrower to California alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #15 safest of 27 Freeze-dried, food processing, employers in California.
Trend analysis for Mercer Foods
Between 2017 and 2024, Mercer Foods's Total Case Rate improved from 7.8 to 6.3 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 19% decrease across 7 years of OSHA reporting.
The safest year on record was 2022, at a TCR of 3.6, while 2017 saw the highest rate, at 7.8, a spread of 4.2 points between the best and worst reporting years. That's a wide swing relative to the establishment's overall rate, worth checking the year-by-year table below for whether a single severe year is driving the average, rather than a sustained trend.
Summed across those 5 reporting years, Mercer Foods recorded 82 total injuries and illnesses, with no fatalities reported in any of those years. Readers comparing establishments should weigh the 5-year trend above alongside establishment size, since a larger workforce naturally accumulates more raw incidents even at a lower per-100-worker rate.
Verify This Employer with OSHA
The 82 injuries, 2 illnesses shown on this page for Mercer Foods are sourced from its own 5 years of mandatory OSHA Form 300A summaries. Cross-check the underlying establishment record directly against the federal source, name, NAICS classification, recordable case totals, and inspection history are all searchable on OSHA's Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data system.
Verify on OSHA Establishment SearchSource: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data. NAICS 311423 - Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables.
DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2024)
What is the DART rate formula?
DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) is computed by OSHA as incidents × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. The 200,000-hour denominator equals roughly 100 full-time workers, which lets establishments of very different sizes be compared directly.
27 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 884,894 hours worked = 6.10 DART
Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping
Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State
| Benchmark | TCR | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mercer Foods (this establishment) | 5.23 | OSHA ITA Form 300A, 5-year avg |
| Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables industry avg | 3.30 | BLS IIF, NAICS 311423 |
| California state avg (all industries) | 5.64 | OSHA ITA, state-level rollup |
Industry benchmarks: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) program
Reportable Incident Timeline
Year-by-year reportable incidents (recordable injuries + illnesses + fatalities) submitted by Mercer Foods to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application. Each row anchors to OSHA's inspection records search where you can pull the underlying inspection case numbers and citations for that establishment-year.
- 2024: 28 reportable incidents · 28 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2023: 15 reportable incidents · 14 injuries, 1 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2022: 14 reportable incidents · 14 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2018: 14 reportable incidents · 14 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
- 2017: 13 reportable incidents · 12 injuries, 1 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
Source: OSHA Inspection Information System (IMIS) - inspection case-number records
Year-by-Year Safety Data
| Year | TCR | DART | Injuries | Illnesses | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 3.7 | 2.7 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | 3.6 | 2.8 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 4.8 | 3.7 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 7.8 | 3.6 | 12 | 1 | 0 |
What this grade means for you
Use this grade as a relative read on Mercer Foods's reported OSHA injury record versus its Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.
- At 158% of the Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables benchmark, Mercer Foods reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
- Judge this record against the wider Freeze-dried, food processing, fruits and vegetables sector, where injury rates vary widely, before comparing it in isolation. See the industry
- Grades reflect 2016–2024 filings; check the latest establishment record straight from OSHA, or look up a different employer. Look up another
Safety grades reflect employers' self-reported OSHA Form 300A filings from 2016 to 2024 and can lag current conditions. A grade is not a guarantee that any specific workplace is safe or unsafe today. See our methodology and disclaimer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mercer Foods's safety grade?
How many injuries has Mercer Foods reported?
Similar Employers
Matched by safety record across the industry, by workforce size within California, and by nearby establishments in Modesto - a different peer set than the category browse links below.
Similar TCR (~5.2)
Similar size (~389 workers)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure and grade on PlainSafetyScore is computed directly from OSHA's published Injury Tracking Application data and BLS industry benchmarks, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these safety grades, or report a data error. Data current as of 2016-2024 OSHA ITA release.