Food firm fined after worker injured

Date:

17 November 2010

Release No:

HSE/99/10

An international frozen food company has been fined after a worker was injured by the moving blades of an industrial freezer.

Thomas Munford, from Bourne, was clearing ice from the inside of the freezer when a colleague switched it on, not realising he was inside. Mr Munford was working a night shift at the Bourne factory of PinguinLutosa Foods UK Ltd on 21 November 2008.

The vegetable flow freezer, a piece of equipment that freezes pre-washed vegetables, included a large stirrer to help distribute the vegetables on to a conveyor. Mr Munford was hit by the blades on the stirrer before he could jump clear. He suffered severe bruising to his legs.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the inside of the freezer was dimly lit and once someone was inside it was very difficult to see them because of a mesh grille.

It was also noisy in the freezer meaning communication was a problem, and both men had worked on an overnight shift for more than eleven hours when the incident occurred.

HSE inspector Stuart Parry said:

"There were a number of factors that contributed to this incident, including the conditions the two men were working in. However, none of this would have mattered if a safe system of isolation, preventing access to dangerous parts of machinery, had been provided.

"If a lockable switch had been fitted to the control panel and operators instructed to padlock it in the off position whenever they were working near the stirrer, nobody would have been able to switch the unit back on until it was safe to do so.

"Mr Munford was very lucky to have escaped with relatively minor physical injuries. If he had slipped on the wet, icy floor instead of being able to jump clear, it might have been a very different outcome."

PinguinLutosa Foods UK Ltd, formerly Pinguin Foods UK Ltd, of Scania Way, Kings Lynn, admitted breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

The company was fined a total of £4,700 and ordered to pay costs of £2,639.50p by Spalding Magistrates' Court yesterday (16 November)

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. The requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2306/regulation/11/made
3. Regulation 3(1)(b) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of-(a)the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and (b) the risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking, for the purpose of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions and by Part II of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997.

Press enquiries

Regional reporters should call the appropriate Regional News Network press office.

.Issued on behalf of HSE by COI News & PR East Midlands