Success of the Recipe for Safety initiative

The joint HSE/food industry Recipe for Safety initiative was set up in 1990/91 to reduce the high injury rate in the food and drink manufacturing industries.

HSE Statistics for food and drink manufacture highlight a further reduction in injuries during 2009/10. During this period, the combined overall injury incidence rate (i.e. injuries per 100,000 workers) for 'over-3-day (O-3-D) absence injuries' plus 'major injuries' reduced by a further 1%. This adds to an earlier 3% reduction in 2008/09 making a combined drop of 4% over the two-year period 2008/10. However the provisional 'major injury rate' for 2009/10 showed a slight increase after falling for many years. Even so, long-term trends are encouraging and show:

50% reduction in the overall injury rate (i.e. combined 'O-3-D absence' and 'major' injuries) since 1990/91;
31% reduction in the 'major' injury rate since 1996 (when the RIDDOR Regulations came into force);
fatal injuries more than halved since 1990/91.