Food manual handling involves transporting food to and from places and lifting or lowering items. When this is done using physical force, workers risk manual handling injury. Injuries in the food processing workplace may affect productivity and employee well-being.
Manual handling equipment and systems provide benefits for all types of food processing, from raw materials and meat processing to horticulture, ready meals, convenience foods, helping food processors to meet safety standards, reduce downtime and boost efficiency.
Overview:
- Five hazardous manual handling tasks to address
- Five principles of safe manual handling
- Top ways reduce the risk in food manual handling
5 hazardous manual handling tasks to
Manual tasks that are poorly performed can result in short-term or long-term injury, mental health consequences, loss of income and medical expenses, as well as loss of time to complete incident reports. In some cases staff may change over, adding human resources expenses.
There are five categories of hazardous manual tasks that should be prioritised for the introduction of manual handling equipment. These include tasks involving:
- Repetitive or sustained force
- High or sudden force
- Repetitive movement
- Sustained or awkward posture
- Exposure to vibration
These categories of tasks put stress on worker’s bodies and can lead to injury.
Manual handling is the primary cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), such as muscle strains and injuries to ligaments and other structures in the back and upper limbs, accounting for more than half of all injuries in the red meat processing industry.
‘Manual Handling in the Red Meat Industry’, WorkSafe Victoria
Five principles of safe manual handling
Food processing workers should undergo training to ensure safe manual handling. These principles provide a process to follow to reduce risk when moving raw materials and other items in the workplace.
- Plan your move
The first step is to plan how you will move an object. Where there is equipment that helps move materials, such as a washframe, dollie, trolley, tipper or tilter for raising or lowering, it should be used.
Where using physical force is the best or only way to move the item, then proceed with physically lifting the item.
- Keep the load close
When lifting a load, the heaviest side of the load should be next to the person’s body or the supporting column of a machine. Position the load correctly before beginning the lift.
- Choose a stable stance
Ensure the load is stable before beginning a lift or carry.
- Hold the load securely
Ensure the load is secure before lifting, carrying or transporting.
- Avoid flexing or twisting
Avoid unnecessary torsion and move smoothly while lifting or transporting a load. If the load becomes unstable, stop, correct the issue and continue.
Food safety is key for safe food manual handling
In addition to these five safety principles, food processors must also consider food safety throughout manual handling tasks. Manual handling tools and processes must be designed to minimise the risk of physical contamination or exposure to chemical food hazards.
Automating food hygiene practices and manual handling tasks can reduce or eliminate human error, making it simpler to complete essential tasks that ensure food safety and employee well-being throughout a production line. For example, using equipment that is designed for easy cleaning and using turnstiles with chemical dispensers at entrances to production areas are two ways to ensure food safety.
Top ways reduce risk in food manual handing
Using the right equipment for safe manual handling is the best way to reduce risks.
Identify hazardous food manual handling tasks
This begins with identifying key steps in the food production process that require hazardous manual handling tasks. This will vary between industries, but may include:
- Lifting/tipping of raw materials or products
- Mixing requires torsion and manual mixing can cause physical strain
- Weighing requires items to be moved onto weigh scales
- Transporting product within the production area or outside it
- Washing equipment at multiple key points in production
Risks should be identified and prioritised in order of the risk rating.
Design safe food manual handling processes
Once the risks are identified, processes and systems can be designed to ensure safe food manual handling at each step. As businesses grow, implementing manual handling equipment enables operations to scale while also ensuring worker safety.
Add food manual handling equipment at key steps
Food manual handling equipment can be introduced when a new production facility is designed or later in the process. In Australia and New Zealand, food manual handling equipment can help to improve worker health and safety, while also driving operational efficiency. Various types of manual handling equipment suit different steps in food processing, from storage to lifting, tipping or mixing and much more.
Ensure safe food manual handling in food processing with FPE
FPE’s expert team can guide your business to Implement manual handling systems and recommend the best solutions to improve safety and drive efficiency. From Eurobin solutions to dollies, weighing, tipping, tilting, conveyor belts or mixing, our mechanical handling items are designed to put food safety first. Build a manual handling system and expand it over time with equipment designed for scaling operations.
Browse our selection of in-stock items to rapidly upgrade your production line, or contact us to ask about our manual handling solutions for meat processing, horiticulture, convenience food or ready meals, AUS 1800 882 549 or NZ 0800 100 003.
