By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Labor has opened an investigation against Hearthside Food Solutions, a U.S. food contractor that makes and packages products for well-known snack and cereal brands, for reportedly employing underage workers and violating child labor laws, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The company has come under scrutiny after a New York Times investigation showed Hearthside’s factories employed underage workers making Chewy granola bars and bags of Lucky Charms and Cheetos, which the company would later ship around the country.
“We can confirm that we have opened an investigation,” a spokesman for the Department of Labor told Reuters.
It was not clear whether the probe will lead to criminal charges, fines or other penalties.
A record number of unaccompanied migrant minors entered the country in recent years, with many entering federal shelters and then released to sponsors, usually relatives, while immigration authorities resolve their requests for refuge in the United States.
But authorities are struggling with long-term follow-up to ensure minors aren’t sucked into a vast network of enablers, including labor contractors, who recruit workers for big plants and other employers and at times have steered kids into jobs that are illegal, grueling and meant for adults.
The Hearthside investigation is the latest in an uptick of probes the department is conducting on child labor in factories around the country.
Reuters last year published a series of stories on child labor including revelations about the use of child labor among suppliers to Hyundai Motor Co in the U.S. state of Alabama.
The first story in the Reuters series, published in February 2022, uncovered young teens working in dangerous chicken processing plants in Alabama.
Earlier this month, a major food safety sanitation company paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers in dangerous jobs at meatpacking plants in eight states, following another DOL investigation.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter and Nick Zieminski)
