Food company pleads guilty in Edmonton smokehouse death, Crown asks for fine

By Canadian Press on June 18, 2025.

EDMONTON — A commercial food processing company has pleaded guilty to a workplace safety charge after an Edmonton worker became trapped in a smokehouse and died.

The Crown has recommended Ontario-based Sofina Foods Inc. be ordered to pay a $330,000 penalty and for 25 other charges against it to be withdrawn.

A judge is to rule on a sentence Thursday.

The company was charged after 32-year-old Samir Subedi died in March 2023.

Court heard he had gone to check the temperature of the smokehouse and an emergency inside handle was broken.

Subedi was found by a co-worker and later died due to heat exposure.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 18, 2025.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press