schedule a meeting

5 Top Reasons to Schedule a Meeting at Process Expo

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Process Expo is the place to discover the latest innovations in food processing and packaging technology for your business. Hundreds of exhibitors, thousands of processing equipment experts, countless new ideas and technologies, all together in one place. There is no other trade show for the food processing industry like it. Process Expo really is worth your time to attend.

There’s another reason why Process Expo is so great: it’s easy to schedule a meeting with multiple equipment manufacturers from all over the country in the same week.

Think about it. Process Expo gives you the opportunity to schedule in-person meetings with equipment manufacturers from Illinois, California, New York, and Florida all in the same week. Try planning that aside from a trade show. It’s definitely not easy…and definitely not affordable.

Process Expo is a great place to schedule meetings with equipment manufacturers about your upcoming projects.

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personal hygiene in food safety

7 Easy Personal Hygiene Tips to Increase Food Safety

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Keeping listeria and other food contaminating bacteria at bay is imperative to improve food safety in any processing plant. One false move and you could be shelling out thousands, if not millions, in product recalls, lawsuits, and replacing of equipment.

While sanitary equipment design plays a huge role in increasing food safety and decreasing the risk of contamination, there is another factor to consider: the personal hygiene practices of your employees.

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safely use smokehouse trucks

7 Easy Ways to Safely Use Smokehouse Trucks

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Smokehouse trucks are a vital part of any cooking operation. Moving products into and out of ovens and smokehouses, transporting products from one work area to another, allowing the product to cool makes smokehouse trucks indispensable to an efficient operation.

However, when used improperly, smokehouse trucks can pose a safety hazard to your employees.

Overloading a truck, placing hands in the wrong places, not properly balancing the cartload can all lead to both musculoskeletal disorders and immediate injury.

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slips and falls report

6 Easy Ways to Reduce Slips and Falls in Your Plant

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Musculoskeletal disorders brought on by poor ergonomics are not the only category of employee injuries that cost time and money. A number of injuries in food processing plants can occur due to slips and falls brought on by wet or slick surfaces.

The floor of a food processing facility is typically exposed to all sorts of food byproducts, including fats, hot oils, blood, sugar solutions, and natural food acids. While these substances can themselves injure employees, they also increase the risk of accidents associated with wet or slick flooring and stairs. Failure to adequately clean up slicks and spills can result in immediate, serious injury.

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4 Easy to Correct Contributing Factors of Employee Injuries

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Musculoskeletal disorders are often the result of multiple contributing factors — anything from work station posture, gender, and temperature to work pace, low staffing levels, and lighting — making it difficult to pinpoint and change the root cause in your food processing plant operation.

When employees are exposed to multiple contributing factors, the chances of injury (and costs to the business) increase. It’s essential, then, to identify the contributing factors that are at play in your processing facility and take the steps to correct and eliminate them.  Doing so will decrease the risk of injury to your employees, and make your food processing plant safer.

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Test Out the Most Durable Ergonomic Stands at Process Expo

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Process Expo is the place to discover, interact with, and try out the latest and greatest solutions available in the food processing industry. It’s where thousands go to find new solutions that will increase their product yield, decrease their operating expenses, and make their facilities safer for employees.

That’s why one of the solutions we will showcase at this year’s Process Expo is our Ergonomic Stands.

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forceful exertion

11 Easy Solutions to Reduce Forceful Exertion Injuries

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Forceful exertion is a common cause of employee injury in food processing plants. Lifting product, pushing carts, dumping product into vats or cooking pots, transferring product from a conveyor to work station — all tasks commonly performed in a food processing plant — can result in back injuries or other types of musculoskeletal disorders.

Simply defined, force is the amount of muscular effort expended to perform work. It can range from small (the amount of force to push a button) to great (like repeatedly lifting and stacking product) and includes everything in between.

The amount of force used in a specific task directly affects the level of risk of employee injury. Exerting great amounts of force over a long period of time can result in fatigue and physical damage to the body. Even single exertions of force, whether small or great, can lead to damage if not performed properly.

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awkward posture

5 Easy Ergonomic Solutions for Awkward Posture Tasks

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Employees working with awkward posture is one of the leading factors of musculoskeletal disorders in a food processing plant. Reaching across a conveyor, lifting heavy loads, twisting and bending at a work station, raising product overhead are common tasks in a food processing plant — and all raise the risk of employee injury.

Prolonged reaching, stretching, bending, twisting, kneeling, squatting, and working overhead (the seven categories of awkward posture) affects the muscle groups in use and makes work tasks more demanding. The constant and increased demand in turn can cause damage to the muscle groups, ligaments, tendons, and joints.

Reducing awkward posture at workstations in your food processing plant not only reduces the risk of employee injuries, it also reduces your risk of paying out the high costs of employee injuries.

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work related injuries

The Most Common Easily Avoidable Work Related Injuries

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There is a high risk for work related injuries in the food processing industry. Reaching across a conveyor, lifting heavy loads, twisting and bending at a work station, performing repetitive tasks, working in awkward positions, operating dangerous equipment – all tasks commonly found in processing plants – are leading risk factors for injury.

According to the California Department of Labor Statistics and Research, the food processing industry has one of the highest lost-workday incidence (LWDI) rates. In 2000, it was almost double than the LWDI rate for all industries as a whole.1

Bruises, cuts, burns, fractures, and amputations are among the top causes of such a high lost-workday incidence rate — due in part to the equipment used in food processing plants.

While those injuries are severe, and drive up the LWDI rate, there is a much more common set of injuries that account for the majority of the high LWDI rate: musculoskeletal disorders.

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