Food manufacturer Samworth Brothers, which owns the Ginsters brand, has been fined £594,000 after an employee and a contractor suffered scald injuries at its Kettleby Foods factory.
The Melton Mowbray site saw an employee and their colleague suffer scald injuries while carrying out maintenance work on steam pipework in the factory.
According to reports from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the men were working to replace a leaking gasket in an isolation valve on steam pipework in the boiler room of the factory, and were undertaking the work from a gantry above the boiler. The gantry reportedly didn’t provide access to the specific part of the pipework they were working on, so both men had to step off the gantry and work on top of the boiler.
When they removed the gasket, they were both splashed with hot water from the pipework, suffering scald injuries. One of the men suffered 4-5% subdermal burns, and the other suffered 9% subdermal, second-degree burns.
Following an investigation by HSE, it was concluded that Samworth Brothers Limited had failed to risk assess the task and failed to document a safe system of work for the task being undertaken.
Samworth Brothers is home to brands including Higgidy, West Cornwall Pasty Co., Dickinson & Morris and Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe.
A Samworth Brothers spokesperson commented: “The health and safety of our colleagues is our most important priority, and we are very sorry that this incident happened.
“It is important to learn from these events. Immediately after the accident we launched an extensive internal review to fully understand what had happened. As a result of this internal investigation several changes were made immediately to further improve upon our health and safety systems and processes in this area of work across our business. In addition, we co-operated very closely with the Health and Safety Executive on their own investigations.”
Incident “could have resulted in even more serious consequences”, says HSE
HSE Inspector Stacey Gamwell said: “A company this size should have known better. This was a wholly avoidable incident which could have resulted in even more serious consequences.
“If Samworth Brothers Ltd had properly risk-assessed the task, they would have identified the need for proper controls for working at height, as well as robust isolation and lock-off procedures, including supervision and monitoring to make sure those procedures and controls were properly enforced.
“Their failure led to severe and painful scalding injuries which should never have happened. The result handed down should serve as a warning to employers; when it comes to keeping people safe, HSE won’t hesitate to take action against firms which fall short.”
