Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing · South Dakota

Saputo Cheese Big Stone

Big Stone City, SD · ~143 workers · 5 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.

Compiled by PlainSafetyScore Editorial, Employer Workplace Safety Editorial Team · May 15, 2026

F
Failing Safety Record: 14.3
Avg TCR: 3.3
Industry avg: 0
Fatalities

The verdict

Saputo Cheese Big Stone runs at 434% of its industry's injury rate - far more dangerous than the typical Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing workplace, earning a grade F.

F
Failing Safety Record: 14.3
avg TCR · per 100 workers: 3.3
industry benchmark (BLS): 100
recordable injuries tracked

Grade compares Saputo Cheese Big Stone's OSHA Total Case Rate of 14.3 to the Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing BLS benchmark of 3.3 (434% 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

Saputo Cheese Big Stone's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 3.3 industry benchmark.

Total Case Rate (recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers), OSHA ITA Form 300A. Industry benchmark: BLS IIF, NAICS 311513.

Where Saputo Cheese Big Stone falls in its industry

386 Cheese (except cottage cheese) establishments

Safer than 4% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 4.8.

Grade F

More dangerous than peersSafer than peers

Narrower to South Dakota alone (the establishments it most directly competes with for workers and contracts): ranked #8 safest of 10 Cheese (except cottage cheese) employers in South Dakota.

Trend analysis for Saputo Cheese Big Stone

Between 2019 and 2023, Saputo Cheese Big Stone's Total Case Rate worsened from 6.9 to 10.9 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 59% increase across 4 years of OSHA reporting.

The safest year on record was 2019, at a TCR of 6.9, while 2021 saw the highest rate, at 19.5, a spread of 12.6 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, Saputo Cheese Big Stone recorded 100 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 100 injuries, 1 illnesses shown on this page for Saputo Cheese Big Stone 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 Search

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data. NAICS 311513 - Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing.

DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2023)

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.

9 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 274,501 hours worked = 6.56 DART

Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping

Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State

Benchmark	TCR	Source
Saputo Cheese Big Stone (this establishment)	14.32	OSHA ITA Form 300A, 5-year avg
Processed cheeses manufacturing industry avg	3.30	BLS IIF, NAICS 311513
South Dakota state avg (all industries)	5.84	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 Saputo Cheese Big Stone 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.

2023: 15 reportable incidents · 15 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
2022: 24 reportable incidents · 24 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
2021: 24 reportable incidents · 24 injuries, 0 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
2020: 24 reportable incidents · 23 injuries, 1 illnesses, 0 fatalities - OSHA inspection records (case numbers)
2019: 14 reportable incidents · 14 injuries, 0 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
2023	10.9	6.6	15	0
2022	18.5	9.3	24	0
2021	19.5	17.9	24	0
2020	15.7	14.4	23	1
2019	6.9	4.9	14	0

What this grade means for you

Use this grade as a relative read on Saputo Cheese Big Stone's reported OSHA injury record versus its Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.

At 434% of the Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing benchmark, Saputo Cheese Big Stone reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
Judge this record against the wider Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing 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 Saputo Cheese Big Stone's safety grade?

Saputo Cheese Big Stone has a safety grade of F (Failing Safety Record). This grade is based on their average Total Case Rate (TCR) of 14.3 compared to the BLS industry benchmark of 3.3 for Cheese (except cottage cheese) manufacturing.

How many injuries has Saputo Cheese Big Stone reported?

Saputo Cheese Big Stone has reported 100 total injuries and 0 fatalities across 5 years of OSHA data (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019). This data comes from mandatory OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) reports.

Similar Employers

Matched by safety record across the industry, by workforce size within South Dakota, and by nearby establishments in Big Stone City - a different peer set than the category browse links below.

Similar TCR (~14.3)

Similar size (~143 workers)

Nearby in Big Stone City

Data Source: OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA), mandatory establishment-level injury/illness reports. Grades compare employer Total Case Rate (TCR) to BLS IIF industry benchmarks. Data covers years reported by this establishment: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019. This is publicly available government data - not a legal determination of workplace conditions.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainSafetyScore Editorial

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.