11 August 2010

On 20 – 22 July 2010, the IOSH Food and Drink Group in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) held a series of practical workshops on the new Assessment of Repetitive Tasks (ART) Tool in Leeds, Leicester and Windsor.

ART highlights the risk factors for key upper limb disorders by assessing four categories of risk: frequency, force, posture and breaks/duration. It’s quick and simple to use and provides a risk score for each task.

The events were very well attended by a total of 107 delegates.

The events featured presentations from the HSE and HSL and allowed delegates the opportunity to attempt an assessment of their own.

Positive feedback was received from the delegates, including;

‘Excellent value for money.  Particularly due to the cost of HSE courses in Buxton’

‘Excellent introduction to ART tool, well worth attending’’

‘Good educational day.  Good fun.  Well balanced between talk and doing’

‘Event very informative’

‘Well organised, good content’

The presentations from the event will be available on the ‘members' only’ section of the IOSH Food and Drink Group website in the near future.

Should you be interested in attending future IOSH Food and Drink Group Events, or IOSH Networking Events please contact the IOSH Networks team.

4 June 2010

The National Food and Drink Health and Safety Awards are proudly sponsored by the IOSH Food and Drink Group. The awards recognise innovative industry projects that have produced a practical solution to, and made a positive impact on, a health and safety problem in the food or drink manufacturing sector.

Entry is open to anyone working in the food or drink manufacturing industry and individual or team entrants can be submitted. Projects submitted will need to be original and unpublished but previous entries may also be resubmitted.

We’ll present the awards at the National Food and Drink Manufacturing Conference in Oxford on 28-29 September 2010. The winners or winning teams’ representatives will be invited to attend the full conference, with accommodation and travel expenses (up to £100) paid. Award winners and runners-up will give a 20-minute presentation at the start of day two.

There are generous prizes on offer including a cheque for £500, trophies and certificates.

For further information on how to enter, please see the flyer and entry form.

PLEASE NOTE: the deadline for entries is now closed.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning all users of telescopic variable reach trucks, commonly known as telehandlers, of the danger of not replacing broken windows on these machines.

This follows the recent death of a 36 year old killed whilst operating a telehandler.

Find out more on the HSE website.

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Work at height case study

The National Food Manufacture health and safety Conference will be held on 28/29 September this year in Oxford.

The organising committee is looking for a good before and after case study on Working at Height (prevention of falls) preferably in a food/drink manufacture environment.  This study would need to fill a 20-30 minute session.

If you have, or know of, a suitable case study not previously used at such an event the IOSH food and drink committee would be grateful to hear from you.

Please contact Nina Price to find out more.

February 2010

BMPA has published revised best health and safety practice guidance for the meat processing industry. 

Find out more.

December 2009

Fire remains potentially the most damaging and disruptive event that any food business has to face. It can lead to significant loss of production process and in some cases destroying whole operations beyond repair. The impacts of event small fires should not be underestimated.

The Food and Drink Group is organising a networking event on 03 March 2010 in Runcorn to share and learn lessons from fires that have recently affected the sector.

Full programme and registration details are available on the events web page.

December 2009

The Food and Drink Group held a very well attended event focusing on machine safety. The event held at the Leicester Race Course on 02 December 2009, covered current best practice in machinery safety and explored the implications of upcoming changes in the law.

You can now view the presentations by downloading the PDF documents below.

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Tuesday, 19 February 2008

The speaker presentations from the Food and Drink Group (F&DG) networking event, entitled 'Slips: A recipe for action', are now available to download below.

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Monday, 03 March 2008

Police are carrying out a joint investigation with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the death of a worker at a sweet factory in Dorset.

The 33-year-old man died after getting his leg caught in a sweet-making machine.

For the full story, visit the BBC News website.

Thursday, 22 January 2009

The IOSH Food and Drink Group Committee in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) organised an event called, 'Flour dust - respiratory disease in the food industry' on 21 January 2009.

Due to oversubscription not everyone who expressed interest had the opportunity to attend this programme. However, the presentations given on the day are now available in the PDF attachments below.

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Thursday, 30 April 2009

An updated table showing testing results for a further 20 footwear samples has been published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

This table is the latest in the ongoing programme of slip-resistance testing of footwear at work.

For further information and to view the table, please visit the HSE website.

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Flour dust and enzymes are the second highest cause of occupational asthma.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has produced a colourful leaflet aimed at reducing the exposure to dust in this industry. To view this PDF document and for further information, please visit the HSE website.

Friday, 17 July 2009

A Food and Drink Group training day called 'Managing a crisis from the director's chair' was held on 01 July 2009 in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

The first half of the day focused on how to respond effectively to a serious incident and explained the role of head of organisations in managing such an incident and the impact it can have on your business. This was followed by workshop sessions which were set up as various crisis scenarios.

These presentations are now available in the PDF attachments below (one not available due to file size).

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Tuesday, 28 July 2009

The IOSH Policy and Technical Director Richard Jones attended on behalf of the Institution and various other IOSH members also attended from their employer or union perspectives, covering several sectors.

Food and Drink Group Chair John Nevitt (representing Tulip) and Tom Chambers (representing Greencore Group) were also present. Several other food and drinks companies sent delegates who also made contributions including: First Milk Group, Hovis, Premier Foods, Warburtons and The Yum Restaurant Group.

Over 60 delegates attended this meeting drawn from various sectors, the trade union movement and trade associations contributing to a lively and informative debate. An initial welcome was extended by the HSE Chief Executive Geoffrey Podger who highlighted the overall principles and priorities of the day’s events. Professor Kemp completed an overview of perceived issues, followed by a summary of known international approaches to the management of workplace temperatures both from within the European Union and further afield such as Canada and Australia. He also highlighted that the main thrust of this current consultation would focus on hot working conditions, as opposed to cold or chilled working environments.

A plenary session followed with delegates given the opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current UK approach. Delegates were then broken into four syndicate groups to enable them to discuss the four key questions raised by the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Rt Hon James Parnell MP, namely:

• Has the relevant legislation and guidance kept pace with the changing nature of workplaces and working patterns?
• Is there continued justification for having a minimum recommended working temperature but not a corresponding maximum recommendation – for those working indoors?
• Can more be done to address the corresponding effects – including seasonal variations – on those working outdoors?
• What can be learned about workplace temperatures in the wider "good work" context, for example in relation to access for drinking water and other facilities in the working environment?

Food and Drink Group members highlighted a need to consult more widely, suggesting that the exercise run at Rose Court is taken into the Regions and that more of the smaller firms are included. HSE agreed to try to talk to trade associations representing smaller organisations before Professor Kemp submits his final recommendations.

Professor Kemp summarised the issues raised during the day’s event and advised delegates of the next steps. His report should be with HSE within six weeks and HSE will then add its own comments. Here the Food and Drink Group have made representations to HSE indicating the need to include experienced HSE Inspectors for the food and drinks sector in the process.

Also at the request of HSE, IOSH have conducted a SNAP survey of IOSH members on ‘workplace temperatures’, from across the entire UK membership. Richard Jones, IOSH Policy and Technical Director, indicated that the closing date for this was 27 July and that early indications were that over 350 responses had been received so far. IOSH Policy and Technical staff will help with the analysis and provide the data set to HSE for inclusion in Professor Kemp's report. 

A report summarising the stakeholder forum will be issued by the Health and Safety Executive in due course.

Friday, 21 August 2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued an alert advising bakeries to check that their explosion relief panels are free to operate properly without obstruction.

This is in response to a gas explosion at a pie factory in Huddersfield that caused the death of a 37-year-old man last Friday.

For more information on the alert, please visit the HSE website. For more on the news story, please visit the Halifax Courier website.