Tyson Fresh Meats to suspend operations at Nebraska beef plant

Tyson Fresh Meats has announced that it is temporarily halting operations at its beef facility in Dakota City, Nebraska, US.

The entire facility will be closed from 1 to 4 May for a deep cleaning and sanitisation regimen.

In addition, team member screening for Covid-19 will be carried out with the Nebraska National Guard support.

The company noted that all its employees will be compensated during the closure period.

Tyson Fresh Meats senior vice-president and general manager beef enterprise Shane Miller said: “Team member safety has and continues to be a top priority for us and we’re grateful for our team members and their critical role in helping us fulfil, to the best of our ability, our commitment to helping feed people in our community and across the nation.

“We’ve been focused on Covid-19 since January when we first formed a company coronavirus taskforce. Since that time, we’ve implemented numerous measures to protect workers and, at times, have gone beyond CDC guidance.”

With 4,300 employees, Tyson’s Dakota City beef facility can produce beef enough to feed 18 million people a day.

Miller added: “We have a dedicated health and safety team working with local, state and federal health officials and our facility operations team to make timely decisions about operations.

“Our decisions on resuming operations during this challenging time will continue to be based on team member safety.”