safely use smokehouse trucks

7 Easy Ways to Safely Use Smokehouse Trucks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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11 safety questions to answer for new employees

11 Safety Questions You Need to Answer for New Employees

Proper safety training is critical when hiring new employees for your food processing plant.

According to the California Department of Labor Statistics and Research, workers in food-processing plants have a higher likelihood of being hurt on the job than workers in many other industries.1 Reaching across a conveyor, lifting heavy loads, twisting and bending at a work station, performing repetitive tasks, and working in awkward positions – all tasks commonly found in processing plants – are leading risk factors for injury.

Most new employees don’t understand the risks of injury associated with working in a food processing plant when they apply for a job — especially if it is their first time working in the food processing industry. Often, they don’t even know the right safety questions to ask to be prepared for the risks.
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injuries in food processing plants

8 Causes of Costly Injuries in Food Processing Plants

According to the California Department of Labor Statistics and Research, workers in food-processing plants have a higher likelihood of being hurt on the job than workers in many other industries.1 Reaching across a conveyor, lifting heavy loads, twisting and bending at a work station, performing repetitive tasks, and working in awkward positions – all tasks commonly found in processing plants – are leading risk factors for injury.

Every injury comes at a cost — both to the employee injured and to the company — in way of accident investigations, OSHA logs, employee downtime, employee turnover, employee retraining, insurance premium increases, medical services, and hiring temporary replacement workers.

Understanding the causes of the most common injuries in food processing plants is key to making adjustments, investing in ergonomic equipment, and providing employee training in order to avoid the high cost of employee injuries.

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stainless steel ergonomic stands

6 Benefits of Stainless Steel Ergonomic Stands

Ergonomic stands have become staple equipment in any food processing facility.

The differing heights of employees, mixed with the growing awareness of musculoskeletal disorders caused from stretching, twisting, overreaching, and repeated awkward movements, has made ergonomic stands necessary to keep employees safe and accident reports (and costs!) down. A facility without ergonomic stands opens itself up to a greater risk of employee injuries and a greater risk of shelling out thousands of dollars for those injuries.

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