Why this matters
Managers unaware: Newly obtained recordings of OSHA interviews with ADM personnel show top managers at a Nebraska plant were unaware of federal safety standards related to grain dust.
Little discipline: Few, if any, ADM employees were disciplined for unsafe behavior.
Potentially unsafe behavior: The new OSHA records show the agency was told ADM employees were using compressed air to clean dust while machinery ran, which would be a violation of safety requirements.
On Christmas Eve 2022, parts of Archer Daniels Midland’s Fremont, Nebraska, grain processing plant were damaged in an explosion. A mechanical malfunction had created a spark and combustible grain dust caught fire.
No one was injured, but the incident “could have been a hell of a lot worse,” as a federal safety inspector noted to plant managers.
That’s because, in the room where the fire started, grain dust had been allowed to accumulate to about an inch, according to the inspector’s observations. The federal government requires facilities to clean once combustible dust reaches an eighth of an inch.
The fire started in a room where soybeans are ground up, which produced large amounts of dust. Attached to the grinding machine was a bag that collected dust, but the bag had been leaking for an unknown amount of time.
A smolder began in the bag, but the flames escaped through the ducts into other areas of the plant. This left the room covered in dust untouched.
As OSHA investigated, the inspector asked plant management how long it would take for an inch of dust to accumulate, but they didn’t answer. “To me,” he said, “it looks like it hasn’t been touched in a while.”
Hours of interviews with plant employees by Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors, as well as hundreds of pages of notes, detail what led to the 2022 fire. The records were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Investigate Midwest, as part of its ongoing coverage of dust explosions in ADM facilities.
The recordings show that senior staff were unaware of longstanding federal standards related to grain dust; that few, if any, workers had been disciplined for safety lapses related to dust; and that employees used compressed air to clean dust while machinery ran — a potentially dangerous situation.
The newly obtained records add more insight into the company’s safety policies and how those policies are implemented. Across its Midwest plants, ADM has allowed dust to reach unsafe levels, failed to maintain equipment designed to prevent explosions and did not develop procedures to safely remove dust, Investigate Midwest reported in May.
ADM did not respond to requests for comment.
More on ADM dust explosions
John Newquist, a former OSHA administrator who now trains companies on dust explosion prevention, said facilities should be able to keep dust under control.
“I have seen much worse (than one inch) but I’ve also seen people keep it under the 8th inch,” he said in an email.
Between 2018 and 2024, ADM facilities experienced at least eight dust explosions, according to figures maintained by Purdue University researchers. Numbers for 2025 are not yet available, and there have been no media reports about explosions at ADM facilities in 2025.
ADM is a Fortune 500 company with hundreds of processing facilities in North America. However, only two other companies had more than one dust explosion during the same time frame, according to Purdue’s data.
In total, one person has died, and 15 others have suffered severe injuries from dust explosions at ADM plants.
At the Fremont facility, a third-party contractor was responsible for cleaning dust. When OSHA began investigating the 2022 incident, the plant’s top manager told the agency he had brought concerns about the contractor to ADM’s corporate office but nothing had been done. For its part, the contractor told OSHA that ADM did not fix anything “until it was broken.”
When asked about the contractor, David Frazelle, a longtime safety executive, told OSHA, “I’m going to say something that our attorney isn’t going to like. (The manager) has been trying to get rid of the maintenance company for quite some time.”
In early 2023, ADM hired a new maintenance contractor for the Fremont plant. The contractor told OSHA that the plant’s top manager, Eric Stanley, was “trying to make a difference.”
The new records show that there were more opportunities for dust explosions at the Fremont facility than previously known. Even small accumulations of dust can lead to large explosions if an ignition source is present.
Between 2021 and 2023, just two fires had been publicly reported. But OSHA documented eight smolders or fires during that time frame.
Ultimately, ADM agreed to pay a fine of about $41,000 for its actions related to the 2022 fire. No individual ADM employees were accused of any wrongdoing. Because of this, Investigate Midwest is withholding most of their names.
But the interviews with ADM employees show how plant staff thought of corporate safety plans.
For instance, during one interview, OSHA inspectors quizzed the plant’s top manager, Stanley, on ADM’s housekeeping practices that were intended to keep the plant free of combustible dust.
“How is the housekeeping (program) … working for your facility?”
“It’s subjective,” he said.
“Is it effective?”
“I don’t think any document is ever perfect.”
An inspector asked again if the program was effective.
“It’s pretty subjective,” Stanley replied. “I don’t honestly know how to answer that.”
The inspectors then changed the subject, saying there was no point to go “in circles.”
Compressed air can be a potentially dangerous situation
Cleaning combustible dust inside grain processing facilities requires constant vigilance. Many facilities, including ADM’s Fremont plant, grind up grain 24/7, which flings large amounts of dust into the air.
One way the plant tried to deal with the issue was using compressed air to blow the dust away. However, that just pushed the dust onto the walls.
This practice was in effect until at least January 2023, when OSHA began investigating the Fremont facility following the Christmas Eve fire.
At some point, “upper management (at ADM corporate) said no air,” a plant manager told OSHA, but he said he couldn’t remember when the edict came down.
In order to use compressed air, all machinery must be turned off, according to OSHA standards. This is because an explosion could occur if the unsettled dust touches an ignition source, such as an engine or a heated surface.
Another issue, Newquist said, is “compressed air tends to blow up microfine dust, which can cause a lot of problems in an explosion.” The fine dust can be inhaled and cause serious health problems.
However, the OSHA inspector said he had been told ADM employees had used compressed air to clean dust while machinery was operating.
More on ADM dust explosions
In the recording of the exchange, the inspector reminded the manager there are protections for whistleblowers. Then, an attorney for ADM — who works for Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of the largest law firms in the U.S. — interrupted, asking if the inspector was accusing the manager of wrongdoing. The inspector said no.
“Are you blowing off equipment, with air, while it’s running?” The inspector asked.
“The rules are we are not supposed to be blowing off any equipment while running,” the manager replied. “When we’re not around, I would say, somebody grabs an air gun and blows off that equipment, that’s something out of my hand.”
Senior ADM plant staff unaware of OSHA standards
All employees receive safety training when they are hired, followed by yearly “refresher” training, managers told OSHA. It’s unclear what exactly is in ADM’s safety training. It’s considered a business secret and redacted in the OSHA records.
Senior managers at ADM’s Fremont facility seemed to be unaware of federal standards related to grain dust management, however, according to the recordings.
At the facility, supervisors oversee several employees during a shift and report directly to the top plant manager. OSHA asked one supervisor, who had been in his position for about three years, if he knew the dangers of grain dust.
“Yes,” he said. “We don’t want to see a footprint. Can lead to fire, explosion.”
“What’s your understanding on how much dust you’re allowed in high-priority areas?” The OSHA inspector asked.
After a few seconds of silence, the supervisor replied, “I can’t remember. I just know that you can’t have accumulated dust anywhere.”
The inspector then told him the standard is an eighth of an inch.
The inspector asked another senior manager if he knew if “soybean dust” was combustible. (It is.)
“I’m sure it can,” he replied. “You always want to be better safe than sorry.”
The inspector then asked if the company had a policy that helped them gauge if the dust was getting too thick.
The manager, who had recently been promoted, said, “It could be improved.”
Few disciplinary actions taken for safety lapses
Prior to the 2022 fire, the Fremont plant struggled to retain workers. About 20 people were on-site during a shift. Many people would apply, but many would stop showing up to work after a while, according to the recordings.
In the recordings, the plant’s top manager said trying to staff the plant “properly” was a challenge. Another manager told OSHA, “At one point, we didn’t have any labor.” The records are unclear on when or for how long.
ADM did not answer questions about whether high turnover contributed to the few disciplinary actions related to safety.
While discussing the use of compressed air, the OSHA inspector asked the plant supervisor — the one who said if employees use air while he’s not around that’s out of his hands — if he had ever “disciplined any employees for not following safety practices.” This included verbal or written warnings.
“I can’t remember,” the manager said.
“Have you ever been personally disciplined for not enforcing safety practices?”
“No.”
In a different interview, the OSHA inspector asked Stanley, the plant’s top manager, if he could remember disciplining any of his direct subordinates over safety concerns. He provided one example of an “administrative error” involving paperwork.
The inspector then asked what ADM’s policy on safety discipline is.
“We handle it on a case-by-case basis,” Stanley said.
“Is there a three-strike rule? Is there anything black and white written (down)?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
ADM’s attorney then jumped in. There is a written disciplinary policy, he said.
“But Eric’s right,” the attorney continued. “It’s case by case,” including termination based on the infraction’s severity.
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