FDA monitors chocolate factory after death

One day after a worker at a Camden factory fell to his death in a vat of chocolate, federal authorities were at the facility yesterday to make sure the company did not ship chocolate that had come into contact with the victim.

The company, Lyons & Sons, had not shipped the chocolate the victim fell into, and will allow Food and Drug Administration officials to monitor its destruction, said FDA spokeswoman Joan G. Lytle.

"The firm was very cooperative," she said.

On Wednesday morning, Vincent Smith II, 29, of Camden, fell from a nine-foot platform as he tossed blocks of cocoa extract into a 120-degree tank that was mixing and melting the material into Hershey's chocolate, authorities said.

Inside the vat, he was hit with a mechanical paddle, and rescue attempts were unsuccessful. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office believes the death was accidental; the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is continuing to investigate.

Smith "was a family man," his aunt, Teresa Smith, said. "We loved him, he loved his family and . . . he's going to be missed."

Questions remained yesterday about whether Moorestown-based Lyons and its subsidiary Cocoa Services were legally allowed to operate the factory.

The City of Camden has yet to find either a certificate of occupancy or a business license for any of the entities involved, according to Iraida Afanador, director of code enforcement.

Through a spokesman hired yesterday by the company, Lyons said the problem may be the result of a miscommunication between the city and the owner when the property was purchased about 10 years ago.

Still, spokesman Kevin Feeley did not rule out the possibility the plant had been operating without proper licensing and documentation. "It may turn out that it's the case, but there was no intent," he said.

Feeley pointed to the fact that the company is registered as part of the Camden Urban Enterprise Zone, a city-administered federal program that provides tax breaks to businesses that operate and hire in low-income areas.

City officials were still trying to sort out that discrepancy yesterday, Afanador said. But she said a search for the building's address on 36th Street did not turn up any information in city tax records.

Feeley said the building's owners - JMJ Realty, owned by Jack Lyons of Lyons & Sons - paid real estate taxes to Camden. He said the fire department performed "regular, if not annual, inspections" of the plant.

"It's our understanding that the City of Camden knew we were there," Feeley said. "A man died here, and it's not our intent to engage in a dispute with the City of Camden. . . . This is just an awful event that happened."

The building is primarily used as a warehouse for storing cocoa beans, and Cocoa Services, the mixing and melting operation, was offered as a "value-added" service, Feeley said.

Cocoa Services had only two permanent employees on its payroll, Feeley said. Smith, a temporary worker, had been employed for two weeks.

Grief counselors were on hand yesterday for workers, Feeley said.

Philadelphia; Newark, N.J.; and Chester are the top three ports of entry for cocoa beans in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.