Bumble Bee Seafood: Plant Worker Cooked to Death

Oct 15, 2012

A Tragic Death at California Seafood Plant

Santa Fe Springs, California – A 62 year-old employee at Bumble Bee Foods Seafood was found dead on Thursday morning in what appears to be a tragic accident. According to spokeswoman Erika Monterroza of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Jose Malena “was fatally injured when he was cooked in an oven,".

Malena, 62, was found dead inside an industrial cooking device known as a “steamer machine” when police and fire personnel responded to a 911 call from the facility. There are no confirmed reports indicating how the fatal incident occurred or whether there were any workplace safety regulatory violations. Operations at the Santa Fe Springs plant are suspended until Monday while investigation into the incident continues.

Bumble Bee Foods spokesman Pat Menke released the following statement to KTLA.com following the tragedy "The entire Bumble Bee Foods family is saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Malena family,".

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.