UK's largest pork producer fined after worker severs fingers

Date:

11 August 2011

Release No:

HSE/221/11

The UK's biggest producer of pork products has been fined after a worker severed two fingers in an unguarded mixing machine.

The 60-year-old, from Branston, Lincolnshire, lost the index and middle fingers on his right hand and damaged his ring finger in the incident at Tulip Ltd's factory in Ruskington on 10 December 2009. The incident happened as he reached into the mixing bowl to remove a piece of blue plastic that he had spotted as he was adding seasoning to the mixture.

After several operations and 10 months off work, the man returned to work but due to the loss of nerve endings in his damaged fingers, is unable to do the same job.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the mixing machine was not guarded, unlike others at the site which all had an electrically locked gate at the top of a set of access steps. If gates had been in place, they would have prevented the paddles inside the machine from turning as the seasoning was added.

Grantham Magistrates' Court was told Tulip Ltd had identified the potential dangers of the machine being unguarded during a risk assessment in February 2009 but did nothing about it.

Tulip Ltd, of Warwick Technology Park, Gallows Hill, Warwick, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,076.

Speaking after today's hearing, HSE inspector Dr David Lefever said:

"This incident has had a profound effect on the worker. Simple, everyday tasks such as tying shoelaces or doing up buttons have become difficult. He has also had to give up playing cricket for his local team and faces the prospect of further surgery to repair his damaged fingers.

"This incident was entirely foreseeable and easily preventable. The risk could have been removed at no cost to the company by removing the access steps and only using the machine for tasks that did not require feeding from the top. Alternatively they could have provided a new set of locked steps at a cost of £960. Unfortunately, a much larger price has been paid, not least by their employee.

"This case shows that risk assessments are not just about producing pieces of paper. Employers have a duty to act on their findings. If Tulip had taken prompt action at the time, this incident would not have happened."

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. Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective- (a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."

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