Meat Processing

A food sanitation-service provider accused of hiring at least 102 children to work overnight shifts cleaning meatpacking plants in eight states has paid $1.5 million in penalties, the Labor Department said. Packers Sanitation Services Inc. illegally employed minors between the ages of 13 and 17 at 13 meatpacking facilities around the U.S., the federal agency said Friday.  The children worked with hazardous chemicals and cleaned meat-processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters, according to…

Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -1.39% Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson pleaded guilty to charges after being arrested in November for falling asleep in a house that wasn’t his, according to the Fayetteville, Ark. prosecutor’s office and the district court. Mr. Tyson, great-grandson of the meat giant’s founder, agreed to pay a $150 fine each on charges of public intoxication and criminal trespass, admitting guilt, officials said. With fees,…

Hundreds of Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -1.01% employees from two of its largest business units plan to leave the company as it consolidates its corporate offices to northwest Arkansas next year, according to people familiar with the matter.The largest U.S. meat supplier by sales said in October that it planned to close its offices in Chicago, Downers Grove, Ill., and Dakota Dunes, S.D., which currently house many of Tyson TSN -1.01%…

Tyson Foods Inc. TSN -1.16% Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson, TSN -1.16% great-grandson of the meat giant’s founder, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of criminal trespass and public intoxication. Mr. Tyson will have a trial on the charges Feb. 15, according to Fayetteville District Court. A Tyson spokesman declined to comment. Last month Mr. Tyson was…

Hormel Foods Corp.’s HRL -3.49% sales slipped 5% in the latest completed quarter as customers bought fewer refrigerated foods and Jennie-O Turkey Store products. The food producer, based in Austin, Minn., said Wednesday that sales fell to $3.28 billion in the quarter ended Oct. 30 from $3.45 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $3.38 billion in revenue. Hormel’s refrigerated-foods business, its largest…

Restaurants that have struggled for months with escalating costs are getting a break from chicken.Prices for chicken breasts in the U.S. have plunged about 70% since the first week of June, according to market-research firm Urner Barry. Wings and tenders have gotten cheaper, too, as poultry companies have increased production while demand from restaurants and supermarkets has remained flat, said chicken industry analysts and executives. Chicken’s rapid price drop has brought relief to restaurant chains as crispy chicken…

It sounds like science fiction, but meat grown in labs is real—and it is getting closer to hitting U.S. grocery stores.The fledgling industry—which generally prefers the name cultivated meat—cleared a hurdle last week when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration indicated it viewed chicken meat developed by Upside Foods as safe to eat. There are still some regulatory steps with the Agriculture Department before the public can buy Upside’s chicken and likely similar products headed to market, but the announcement was seen as…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time Wednesday indicated it viewed chicken grown from cells as safe to eat, bringing cultivated meat closer to U.S. grocery store shelves.The FDA said it had completed a premarket review of a cultivated chicken product from Berkeley, Calif.-based Upside Foods, and had no unresolved questions about its safety for humans to eat. The lab-grown chicken from Upside Foods must still get approvals from the Agriculture Department, which oversees the meat industry,…

Mr. Tyson, the 32-year-old son of the meat giant’s chairman, was arrested on Nov. 6 for criminal trespass and public intoxication, according to a Fayetteville Police Department report. He was found asleep in the wrong Fayetteville, Ark., home, according to the police report. “I’m embarrassed and I want to let you know that I take full responsibility for my actions. I also want to apologize to our investors, as I have to our employees,” Mr. Tyson said on a Monday conference call discussing Tyson’s most recent quarterly…

Dozens of minors, some as young as 13, were illegally employed to clean meat-processing plants in Minnesota and Nebraska, federal authorities said. The Labor Department filed a federal complaint in Nebraska asking for a nationwide temporary restraining order and injunction against Packers Sanitation Services Inc., a food-safety company that provides contract sanitation services, over the allegations.  U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard, of the District Court of Nebraska in Lincoln, issued…