GMB Union has accused Waitrose and Sainsbury’s sushi maker Taiko Foods of playing games with an employee’s life, after a worker lost the tops of his fingers in an accident at its Acton plant.
2 Sisters boss Ranjit Boparan’s call to give evidence before a parliamentary committee and Nestlé’s relocation of some of its manufacturing operations to Poland feature in this photogallery of the most read stories on our website this year.
Ice cream accompaniment manufacturer Marcantonio Foods has been fined £300,000, after a worker had four fingers amputated while operating a metalworking lathe.
A manufacturer of prepared meals has been ordered to pay more than £100,000 for safety failings, after a worker fell 6m off the back of a forklift truck.
A Kent-based fruit business has been fined for safety failings after it allowed a contractor to access a door for repair by standing on an apple box raised at height by a forklift truck.
An animal feed firm has been fined £80,000 for safety failings after one of its workers died when he was buried under up to 10t of wheat being unloaded from a lorry – the second such prosecution in the past month.
A Premier Foods engineer has received a significant amount in compensation after he was left with life-changing injuries following a devastating accident at its Moreton cake factory.
A Leeds-based bakery company has been ordered to pay more than £9,000 after a 26-year old worker lost two finger tips in the drive chain of a conveyor.
A soft drinks firm has been ordered to pay £155,000 in fines and costs, after a 24-year worker died during the decommissioning of its former factory in South Wales.
Poorly guarded machinery has been one of the most common causes of accidents in the food and drink manufacturing sector over the last 12 months – with a number of workers losing fingers as a result, FoodManufacture.co.uk can exclusively reveal.
The packaging firm Smurfit Kappa has been ordered to pay £219,000, after a worker lost four fingers and severed parts of two others in an accident with a whisky packaging machine at its Whitehaven factory, Cumbria on September 14 2010.
Food refrigeration firm George Baker & Co has been ordered to pay £140,000 after admitting safety failures that led to the death of a 61-year old worker, who was crushed beneath an unsecured racking system.
A reduction in accidents should lead to lower insurance premiums for manufacturers across the food and drink sector, according to experts in the field.
Injury rates in food and drink companies are nearly double the manufacturing industry average. Yet 80% of accidents are easily preventable through better training and reduced manual handling, says Michelle Knott