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Cleaning fondant enrober costs employee fingertips - food industry accident
29/10/2009
Oxford based company fined for not having suitable risk assessment or guarding in place.
Fingertips amputated in machine accident, company fined £8,750
A company was fined recently at Oxford Magistrates Court for not having suitable risk assessment or guarding in place on machinery. The investigation follows an incident where one of its employees was injured in a machine, leaving her with a permanently disfigured hand.
The company, whose head office is in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3 (1) (a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,751.
On 22 January 2009, an employee of Oxford was cleaning a sponge cake icing machine, called a fondant enrober, at the company’s factory in Oxford. At the end of each working day it was the machine operator’s job to clean the excess fondant off when production had finished. When the operator pushed her left hand along a channel at the base of the machine, her fingers came into contact with a large revolving screw, known as an auger. This amputated the ends of two fingers on her hand.
The HSE launched an investigation which showed that there were inadequate risk assessments covering this machine, with only a single generic risk assessment being available. This did not detail any risks in relation to this specific machine nor did it cover the cleaning of the machine. In addition the company had a cleaning instruction card for the machine which stated that the power should be switched off before the machine was cleaned, although the company accepted that it would not be practicable to clean the machine properly with the power off. There was no evidence that the employee had ever seen this document.
After the incident the company fitted additional guarding to the machine which prevented access to the dangerous part, whilst allowing operators to safely clean that part of the machine whilst it was running.
The investigating inspector commented:
“The risks associated with these types of cleaning machines should be properly assessed as this is one of the major causes of machinery accidents in the food industry.
“In this case any basic assessment would have identified that access to the dangerous part of the machine was possible and this was easily preventable by a very simple modification to the machine.”
A company was fined recently at Oxford Magistrates Court for not having suitable risk assessment or guarding in place on machinery. The investigation follows an incident where one of its employees was injured in a machine, leaving her with a permanently disfigured hand.
The company, whose head office is in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3 (1) (a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The company was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,751.
On 22 January 2009, an employee of Oxford was cleaning a sponge cake icing machine, called a fondant enrober, at the company’s factory in Oxford. At the end of each working day it was the machine operator’s job to clean the excess fondant off when production had finished. When the operator pushed her left hand along a channel at the base of the machine, her fingers came into contact with a large revolving screw, known as an auger. This amputated the ends of two fingers on her hand.
The HSE launched an investigation which showed that there were inadequate risk assessments covering this machine, with only a single generic risk assessment being available. This did not detail any risks in relation to this specific machine nor did it cover the cleaning of the machine. In addition the company had a cleaning instruction card for the machine which stated that the power should be switched off before the machine was cleaned, although the company accepted that it would not be practicable to clean the machine properly with the power off. There was no evidence that the employee had ever seen this document.
After the incident the company fitted additional guarding to the machine which prevented access to the dangerous part, whilst allowing operators to safely clean that part of the machine whilst it was running.
The investigating inspector commented:
“The risks associated with these types of cleaning machines should be properly assessed as this is one of the major causes of machinery accidents in the food industry.
“In this case any basic assessment would have identified that access to the dangerous part of the machine was possible and this was easily preventable by a very simple modification to the machine.”
