Meat industry

Hazards and Solutions

1. Hazard 1 Butchering boning and cutting

   • Provide appropriate mechanical aids and equipment (eg meat tensioners, height-adjustable workstations, sliding bandsaw table) and ensure they are used properly and maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications.
   • Use height adjustable guards on bandsaws.
   • Train employees on safe techniques (eg boning should be done between the shoulders and waist).
   • Use engineering design for safety barriers, guards or mechanical feeding to minimise the likelihood of injuries caused by blades or cutters.
   • Ensure carcass temperatures support the smoothest possible cutting, particularly for hard beef.
2. Hazard 2 Knives

   • Provide mechanical sharpening systems.
   • Ensure employees using knives wear hand and arm protection on both hands.
   • Provide appropriate protective equipment and clothing (eg mesh aprons).
   • Provide training in selection, use and sharpening of knives.
3. Hazard 3 Lifting and handling

   • Provide appropriate mechanical aids and equipment (eg mechanical arms, height adjustable equipment, use a de-palletiser attachment on a forklift when stacking shipping containers) and ensure they are used properly and maintained in accordance with manufacturer specifications.
   • Box and palletise meat to eliminate carrying carcasses by hand.
   • Transfer tubs by dolly or trolley, and empty by mechanical means (eg tipping chutes).
   • If meat lumping is unavoidable (eg transporting from a vehicle into retailer), use a linkage rail system or carcass trolley.
   • Design work to ensure work is done between shoulder and waist height to keep employees working in an upright postures as much as possible. Achieve this by raising, lowering or moving either the employee or the work.
   • Train employees in the selection and use of any mechanical equipment and aids and safe handling methods.
   • Ensure employees are not exposed to repetitive work for long periods (eg by using job rotation, work variation, providing sit-stand stools and anti-fatigue mats) or work that requires a significant amount of high force.
4. Hazard 4 Noise

   • Ensure employees are not exposed to noise that exceeds the exposure standard.
   • Arrange for a noise assessment if employees are exposed to excessive noise (eg workers have to raise their voices to communicate over a distance of one metre) and there is uncertainty as to whether employees exposure may have exceeded the noise exposure standard.
   • Eliminate or minimise the source of noise (eg enclose or isolate noisy machinery, reduce vibration, use barriers to absorb and screens to block the direct path of sound, use silencers on air exhausts, exhaust pneumatics out of the area, buy the quietest tools / machinery available).
   • Place warning signs in areas of excessive and continual noise (eg where employees exposure is likely to exceed the exposure standard).
   • Warn other workers nearby that you will be undertaking noisy work and advise them to move away or wear hearing protection.
   • Provide hearing equipment, ensure it is worn at all times, and provide employees with audiometric testing. Employers should provide a choice of different types of hearing protection appropriate to the noise level in the workplace.
5. Hazard 5 Slips trips and falls

   • Ensure floor surfaces and footwear are non-slip.
   • Ensure spills are cleaned up immediately.
   • Remove unwanted material and waste regularly so it does not accumulate.
6. Hazard 6 Zoonoses

   • Ensure employees are protected from zoonotic diseases (eg by methods such as dust minimisation programs, effective ventilation, prompt disposal of waste and reproductive products, personal protective equipment, vaccination - including for Q fever).