The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a major food company that supplies many of the UK’s supermarkets, after an employee’s hand was crushed in machinery.

In August 2004, the worker was helping colleagues to clear a blockage in a cabbage washing line at Bakkavör’s Bourne Salads factory in Bourne, Lincolnshire.

The employee reached into the screw conveyor – used to shred cabbage – to try to remove several cabbages blocking the machine. 

Although the machine had a guard to prevent access to the screw conveyor, this had been disabled to allow the machine to run without it. The machine had not been properly isolated, however, and when the blockage was cleared, it started up again, crushing the employee’s hand.

Bakkavör’s head office is in Reykjavik, Iceland and its clients include Tesco, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield and Waitrose. The company operates three subsidiaries in the UK, employing a total of 2,500 people in Britain.

On Thursday (18/02/10) at Grantham Magistrates’ Court, Bakkavör Foods Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 11(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £2,000.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Jo Anderson said that Bakkavör had failed to ‘efficiently maintain’ the protective guards that prevented employees from accessing dangerous parts of the factory’s machinery.

‘Bakkavör is a huge company which employs 20,000 worldwide and 2,500 in the UK alone,’ said Ms Anderson.

‘It is often assumed companies of this size adhere to health and safety policies at all times,’ she added.

Regulation 11(3) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states that all guards and protection devices must be suitable for the purpose, as well as being of good construction, sound material and adequate strength.

Guards and protective devices on machinery must also be maintained in ‘an efficient state’, in ‘efficient working order’ and ‘in good repair’ – and should not give rise to any increased risk or be easily bypassed or disabled.

The regulation also states that protective guards should be situated at a suitable distance from any danger zone and should not unduly restrict the view of the operating cycle of the machinery – or be constructed or adapted for the purpose of fitting or replacing parts of the machinery or for maintenance work.

Ms Anderson added:

‘The employee suffered the injury whilst working a nightshift – and this unfortunate incident sends out a clear message on the importance of companies maintaining the same standard of care to employees on a nightshift as on a dayshift.’

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