The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released a safety video examining the January 2021 liquid nitrogen release at the Foundation Food Group (FFG) poultry processing plant in Gainesville, Georgia, that killed six workers and seriously injured three others.

According to the CSB, the incident occurred when a bent bubbler tube caused an immersion freezer's level-control system to continue adding liquid nitrogen after the freezer had reached its capacity. The excess nitrogen overflowed and rapidly vaporized, creating a hazardous atmosphere in the poorly ventilated freezer room.

Two maintenance workers inside the room were asphyxiated. Four additional employees died after entering the room during the response, and three others were seriously injured. The vapor cloud reportedly remained in the room for more than an hour.

The freezer was installed by Messer LLC about five weeks before the incident. According to the CSB, FFG had experienced operational problems with the equipment and Messer had made multiple visits to troubleshoot the issues.

The new video uses animation to reconstruct the incident and includes commentary from CSB Board Member Sylvia Johnson and agency investigators. The video revisits five safety issues identified in the CSB's final report: a single point of failure, atmospheric monitoring and alarms, emergency preparedness, process safety management and product stewardship.

The CSB found that FFG did not have an atmospheric monitoring and alarm system that could have alerted workers to hazardous conditions in the freezer room. The agency also found that FFG lacked an effective emergency response plan for a liquid nitrogen release and had not adequately trained employees on responding to such an event.

The video also highlights recommendations the CSB made to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as part of 12 total recommendations issued to OSHA, Messer, Gold Creek Foods, the Compressed Gas Association, the National Fire Protection Association and the International Code Council.

The video comes as the CSB has issued several recent reports and investigation updates involving process safety and hazard management.

On Aug. 14, the agency updated its investigation of an April 2026 hydrogen sulfide release at Catalyst Refiners Inc. in Institute, West Virginia, that killed two workers and seriously injured four others. The CSB identified chemical incompatibilities, decommissioning hazard analysis, chemical disposal procedures, PPE and atmospheric monitoring among the issues under review. Investigators also found gaps in respiratory protection and personal gas monitoring.

Earlier this month, the CSB released its final report on the August 2025 explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works in Pennsylvania. The agency attributed contributing factors to an informal valve-cleaning practice, facility-siting deficiencies and weaknesses in process safety management. The incident killed two workers and injured 11.

The agency also recently closed its recommendations stemming from the 2017 combustible-dust explosion at Didion Milling's facility in Wisconsin after determining that the company had implemented all nine recommendations issued following the investigation. Earlier this year, the CSB released a safety video on the incident, which killed five workers and injured 14. The Didion video was the CSB's most recent safety video before the new FFG release.