One worker at the firm’s Marlston-cum-lache factory suffered burns over all her body and spent a week in the specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside, after the accident on October 26 2011. The second worker also needed hospital treatment for burns to his left arm, head and lower back.
During a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Chester Magistrates’ Court was told the dairy processor’s system for cleaning the tank fell below the minimum legal standards.
Magistrates heard the cleaning procedure needed a complicated series of valve changes on the tank. But there were no written instructions or diagrams to show how to conduct the task safely.
Forcing out the hot water
The workers, who asked to remain anonymous, were cleaning the tank when the 22-year-old male employee opened one of the valves. The valve released compressed air from surrounding pipes into the tank, forcing out the hot water, which scalded the worker and his 35-year old female colleague.
A HSE investigation revealed the firm – which employs 100 people at the Rough Hill site – had conducted a risk assessment for the cleaning process a few months earlier. But the firm had failed to identify basic risks such as burns from hot water or the build-up of pressure.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Lisa Lewis said the system for cleaning the tank was very complicated and required 10 separate valves to be opened and closed in a specific sequence. But workers received no written instructions on how to carry out the work safely.
“There was simply no point in Meadow Foods carrying out a risk assessment for the work if they weren’t going to consider basic risks – like hot water scalding workers – and take action to control them,” said Lewis.
‘Injuries could have been avoided’
“The firm has since modified the tank to prevent water escaping, reduced the water temperature to 50 degrees, and provided laminated instructions and photos for the workers,” she added. “If these measures had been in place at the time of the incident then the employees’ injuries could have been avoided.”
Meadow Foods Ltd was fined £54,000 and ordered to pay costs of £18,553, after pleading guilty to single breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.
A Meadow Foods spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk the firm had worked closely with the HSE to review all its internal processes and to improve its health and safety procedures to ensure such an incident does not happen again.
“As part of the ruling, the court recognised Meadow Foods’s previously good record and the work that it has already done in improving its H&S procedures,” he said. “Meadow Foods continues to take Health & Safety at all its sites very seriously and as further commitment to this is looking to achieve OHSAS 18001 accreditation later this year.”