Kentucky Food-Color Plant Was ‘Catastrophe Waiting to Happen,’ CSB Says
Article 0 Comments A Kentucky food-coloring manufacturer made a number of missteps and was not equipped to prevent the 2024 runaway chemical reaction that killed two workers and caused millions of dollars in damage to the plant and surrounding neighborhoods. That was the conclusion from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which this week released its final report on the Givaudan Sense Colour explosion in Louisville. “This tragic incident was a catastrophe waiting to happen,” Chemical Safety Board (CSB) Chairman Steve Owens said in a statement. “The reactor’s pressure relief system was not designed to release pressure from a reaction like this, and Givaudan did not recognize the potential for a runaway reaction to happen.” The CSB, an independent, nonregulatory federal agency that investigates incidents, explained that a reactor, used to produce caramel coloring for food products, had been relocated to the site from an older facility. In 2021, the reactor was modified and installed in the Louisville plant. But the retrofit was not as safe as it could have been, the board said. The two workers killed in the November 2024 blast were in a control room that was just 40 feet from the reactor—a control room...