The citations issued Thursday total $379,800 in penalties against Mar-Jac for safety and health violations at its Gainesville facility, 1020 Aviation Blvd.

Friday’s statement from Mar-Jac notes the poultry company has issued notices of contest disputing the violations and their "alleged severity."

"We have always taken safety seriously, and these citations did not arise as the result of any accident or injury at our plant," Pete Martin, vice president of poultry operations, said in the statement.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with the OSHA area director or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

"We feel these citations and penalties are unfounded and we will contest them within the limits of the law. We take our obligations to the safety and health of our employees very seriously," Martin said. "In fact, our lost workday injury rate year-to-date is 3.82, which is considerably less than the national average for the poultry industry."

The company is being cited with four willful violations with a proposed penalty of $252,000 for failing to update its hazard analysis in five-year intervals as required; to establish specific procedures to maintain the integrity of process equipment; and to institute equipment and procedural changes for the ammonia refrigeration system in 2004, 2005 and 2008.

The penalties came after someone lodged a complaint about the facility and OSHA conducted an inspection at the plant, according to G.T. Breezley, OSHA’s area director based in Tucker.

Mar-Jac maintains the management thought its refrigeration process "did not contain quantities of ammonia sufficient to trigger coverage under the process safety management standard," and disputes a noise violation on the grounds that OSHA didn’t notify the company of any changes to its policy on noise, according to the release.