Nottinghamshire food firm fined £20k after man's wrist crushed in machine

Belwood Foods Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

A food processing company has been fined £20,000 after a worker's wrist was crushed by machinery.

Piotr Zielinski, 58, was cleaning poultry machinery at Belwood Foods Limited in Kirkby-in-Ashfield on 22 November 2019.

He suffered serious injuries when his right arm was pulled into the machine, and he required surgery.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the injury was "easily preventable".

Mr Zielinski, from Nottinghamshire, was removing debris that was trapped on the hinges of an open access panel door at the base of a hopper machine at the Lowmoor Business Park site, the HSE said.

Part of the machine was still running and caught his arm, pulling it into the machine up to his elbow.

The company was fined £20,000 at Nottingham Magistrates' Court

This led to skin and muscle being removed from Mr Zielinski's right arm, with his wrist also being crushed.

An investigation by the HSE found the access panel door was able to be opened freely whilst the auger - a mechanism used to pull food into the machine - was in motion.

There were no controls in place to prevent the panel from being opened.

It was not locked or interlocked, and there was no safe isolation procedure for this weekly cleaning task, the HSE said.

'Minimise the risk'

Belwood Foods Ltd, based at The Henley Building, in Newtown Road, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

The company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £7,839.21 in costs at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on Monday.

HSE inspector Lee Greatorex said: "This injury was easily preventable.

"Employers have a responsibility to properly assess the risks from all aspects of their operations, including cleaning and maintenance, and implement effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery."

Belwood Foods has been approached for comment.