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Food & Beverage Manufacturing logs more occupational hearing loss cases than any other industry in America. Not construction. Not mining. Not steel. Food and beverage. 15,622 cases across 1,172 companies over nine years — with a trend line that is still moving up. Here is what is driving it, what the noise profile actually looks like on the floor, and what a compliant program needs to do differently for this sector.
Soundtrace analyzed nine years of OSHA ITA hearing loss data across 21,120 U.S. establishments. Food & Beverage Manufacturing is the #1 industry by total case volume in the dataset — and this post explains exactly why. This is the industry-specific companion to our industry rate analysis and national trend overview.
The answer is not that food and beverage manufacturing is uniquely dangerous. It is that it combines three factors that almost no other industry shares simultaneously: enormous scale, continuous multi-shift operations, and sustained broadband noise across virtually every job function.
Steel and metals manufacturing has high per-worker rates but smaller total workforces. Construction has massive employment but episodic rather than continuous noise. Forestry has extraordinary per-worker rates but tiny workforce totals. Food & Beverage sits at the intersection of all three risk multipliers — large workforce, continuous operations, and sustained exposure — which is why it accumulates more total cases than any other sector.
The per-company average of 13.3 cases is one of the most striking figures in the dataset. It means that across 1,172 companies, the average Food & Beverage manufacturer recorded more than one hearing loss case per year over the nine-year period. For a sector that often views hearing loss as a background condition rather than an active safety priority, that number demands attention.
Food & Beverage manufacturers spend enormous resources on food safety, contamination prevention, and regulatory compliance. Many of those same facilities are systematically damaging the hearing of their workforce every single shift — and treating it as an acceptable cost of operations rather than a preventable injury.
Walk through a typical food or beverage manufacturing facility and the noise is not just present — it is relentless. Unlike a construction site where the jackhammer stops, or a machine shop where workers have quiet cycles, a food plant runs at high decibel levels from line start to line stop. The same exposure, the same frequencies, the same intensity, every hour of every shift.
The specific noise sources vary by product category, but the pattern is consistent: multiple simultaneous high-noise sources that combine to create a sustained broadband exposure that almost always exceeds 85 dBA at workstations throughout the facility.
The critical detail in that noise profile is that packaging, refrigeration, and conveyance systems are running throughout the facility — not just in designated high-noise areas. A worker on a packaging line who never touches the primary processing equipment is still receiving sustained exposure from the ambient plant environment. Noise monitoring programs that only sample primary production areas routinely miss workers who have significant daily exposures.
OSHA requires noise monitoring sufficient to identify all employees who may be exposed at or above 85 dBA TWA. In food plants, this includes maintenance workers, quality control technicians, forklift operators, and sanitation crews who move through high-noise zones throughout their shifts. Monitoring only production line operators leaves a significant portion of the exposed population unenrolled in the hearing conservation program.
The nine-year trend for Food & Beverage is unmistakably upward. With the exception of the 2020 COVID detection gap — where audiometric testing suspension caused case counts to drop across all industries — the trajectory has been consistent annual growth, reaching a new peak in the most recent year with complete data.
The post-2020 recovery in Food & Beverage was faster than many other sectors — a reflection of how quickly facilities resumed full production operations. The 2023 peak is consistent with the national pattern of deferred threshold shift detections surfacing after the testing gap. The 2024 partial-year data is already tracking above 2023, suggesting the full year will represent a new record for the industry.
A trend that dips sharply in 2020 and then climbs steeply in 2021–2024 is not evidence that hearing loss improved during the pandemic. It is evidence that hearing loss went undetected during the pandemic. Workers did not stop losing hearing because testing stopped. They stopped showing up in the data.
Food & Beverage's #1 ranking by total case volume does not mean it has the highest per-worker hearing loss risk. When normalized to cases per 10,000 employees, Food & Beverage falls below industries like Forestry & Logging (roughly 760 per 10,000), Wood Products Manufacturing (~335), and Fishing & Hunting (~328). Its 1.42% average injury rate puts it in a mid-tier risk position when adjusting for the enormous scale of its workforce.
But this distinction matters less than it might seem. Here is why.
For safety directors, insurance underwriters, and compliance officers, the relevant number depends on the question being asked. If the question is where are workers most individually at risk, look at the rate. If the question is where is the aggregate injury burden highest, look at volume. For Food & Beverage, both answers demand action — just for different reasons.
The 1.42% average rate across 1,172 companies also conceals enormous internal variation. A company operating a single high-speed grain milling facility may have a rate several times the industry average. A company operating ambient-temperature food service facilities with modest noise levels may be well below it. The industry average is a starting point for benchmarking, not a compliance target.
Food & Beverage manufacturing is an industry with significant regulatory burden: food safety programs, HACCP plans, allergen management, FDA oversight, and environmental compliance all compete for safety and compliance resources. Hearing conservation frequently gets deprioritized — not because operators don’t care, but because it produces a slow-moving, invisible injury that takes years to manifest as a claim or a recordable event.
The data reveals several patterns that suggest systematic compliance gaps across the sector.
OSHA requires annual audiometric testing for all workers enrolled in a hearing conservation program. In high-turnover food manufacturing environments — particularly seasonal operations and those with significant temporary labor — maintaining complete annual testing cycles is operationally difficult. Mobile van audiometric testing, which requires scheduling, facility access, and workforce coordination, is particularly prone to coverage gaps in these environments. Workers who miss a testing cycle may go two or more years without an audiogram, accumulating threshold shifts that go undetected.
OSHA requires re-monitoring when there is a change in production, process, equipment, or controls that may result in new exposures at or above the action level. In food manufacturing, equipment upgrades, line reconfigurations, and new product introductions are routine. Noise surveys that reflect conditions from three or four years ago are common, and many operations add noise sources without triggering a monitoring update. The result is an enrollment population that does not reflect actual current noise exposure.
Many food manufacturing facilities default to standard disposable foam earplugs across all noise zones and job functions. For workers in areas exceeding 95 dBA TWA — common at bottling lines, grain milling operations, and high-speed packaging areas — standard foam earplugs may not provide adequate attenuation even when worn correctly. Attenuation adequacy is a documented compliance requirement, not an assumed outcome of providing PPE.
When an STS is identified, OSHA requires notification to the worker within 21 days of determination, evaluation of whether additional testing is needed, and a determination of work-relatedness for 300 Log purposes. In food manufacturing companies that use third-party mobile testing vendors, this follow-up chain is frequently delayed or incomplete — particularly when testing results take weeks to return and the responsible supervisor has changed since the last testing cycle.
The structural characteristics of Food & Beverage manufacturing create specific requirements that generic hearing conservation program templates don’t adequately address.
Soundtrace provides in-house audiometric testing equipment, automated STS detection, cloud-based recordkeeping, and medical oversight — designed for the operational realities of continuous food manufacturing environments. No mobile vans. No scheduling disruptions. Results the same day.
Get a Free QuoteWatch a DemoFood & Beverage combines three risk multipliers simultaneously: a very large total workforce, continuous multi-shift operations, and sustained broadband noise from processing, packaging, conveyance, and refrigeration systems. Construction and mining have higher per-worker rates in some categories but smaller total workforces and more episodic noise exposure.
The Soundtrace dataset shows a 1.42% average injury rate across 1,172 Food & Beverage companies — approximately 1 recordable hearing loss case per 70 workers across the nine-year dataset period. The average facility recorded 13.3 cases in total, or more than one per year.
Yes. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.95 applies to all Food & Beverage manufacturing employers where workers are exposed at or above 85 dBA TWA. This triggers the full six-element hearing conservation program: noise monitoring, audiometric testing, hearing protection, training, recordkeeping, and employee access to information.
An STS is a 10 dB average shift in hearing thresholds at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz compared to a worker's baseline audiogram. When determined to be work-related and the post-shift average hearing level exceeds 25 dB HL, it must be recorded on the OSHA 300 Log and the worker must be notified within 21 days.
Soundtrace provides in-house audiometric testing equipment, automated STS detection with OSHA 300 Log flagging, cloud-based audiogram recordkeeping, and medical oversight — allowing Food & Beverage manufacturers to run continuous, facility-based hearing conservation programs without mobile vans, scheduling delays, or delayed results.