Supply chain

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Health and safety issues

It has been recognised for many years that actions taken in one part of the food supply chain can adversely (or beneficially) affect another part.

For example:

Precautions which need to be adopted

In order to reduce injuries in other parts of the supply chain, the following precautions should be considered.

Suppliers

The main problems usually relate to manual handling (which causes 35% of food industry injuries). For example:

Food retail customers

Problems can occur when customers place requirements on suppliers in relation to buildings/equipment or process/production. For example:

Responsibilities for suppliers and customers to be aware of include:

Working together

The key to reducing injuries to workers throughout the supply chain is close cooperation between suppliers, manufacturers and retailers.

Issues such as those highlighted above, which affect parties upstream or downstream, need to be discussed freely and action taken to minimise any adverse effect on others.

Doing so will ensure injuries to workers are reduced along with associated industry costs.

Updated 2020-01-31