Firm investigating potential peanut contamination
A Leicester firm involved in the recall of 70 food products says investigations into a potential peanut contamination are ongoing.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising people with an allergy to avoid consuming foods that may contain mustard, because they could be contaminated with peanuts.
Mustard ingredients – including mustard powder or flour – can be found in dips, sauces, salads and pre-packed sandwiches, the FSA said.
FGS Ingredients, the UK supplier of the recalled mustard from India, said testing was ongoing to understand “where and how this issue originated”.
As of Saturday 70 products have been recalled, including Dominos dips, SPAR sandwich fillers and salads, and Harvester BBQ sauce.
The FSA has traced the contaminated mustard ingredients supplied by FGS Ingredients to a producer in India called GT Agro Industries.
Read more on the BBC website.
Safety charity reveals extent of unreported workplace harm
A global safety charity is calling for more regular, tailored health and safety training and better reporting tools after discovering that nearly one in five (18%) workers have experienced harm at work globally.
The figures come from the latest edition of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, and are explored further in its latest report: Engineering safer workplaces: Global trends in occupational safety and health. The data was collected by global analytics firm Gallup, who conducted 147,000 interviews in 142 countries and territories around the world, and found that workplace harm rates have remained steady since the Poll began in 2019 (19% in the past two editions, compared to 18% now).
According to the data, rates of harm vary greatly across sectors, with fishing named as the most dangerous occupation, just ahead of construction and mining. Low- and lower-middle-income countries were also found to have higher workplace harm rates (19% and 22%, respectively).
Worryingly, the data shows that almost two thirds of the global workforce (62%) have never received occupational safety and health (OSH) training about risks associated with their work.
For more on the research, visit the HSM website.
Contractor fined after worker left paralysed by falling tree
A contractor from Dorset has been fined after a tree fell onto a forestry worker and left him with life-changing injuries.
The 61-year-old man, who was 58 at the time, is now paralysed from the stomach down after the 21-metre ash tree landed on top of him at The Fonthill Estate in Salisbury, Wiltshire on 12 January 2022.
Gerald Hayward, who had been contracted as part of an ash dieback clearance programme, had been cutting the tree before it fell.
Mr Hayward, trading as G H Hayward Forestry Contractors, had been making a back cut to the tree when it fell in the wrong direction.
It then landed on the injured worker, who was standing in a nearby bridle path.
The worker, from Frome in Somerset, sustained eight broken ribs, a broken pelvis, two broken ankles, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.
He was placed in an induced coma for two weeks and later spent four months in hospital.
Learn more on the SHP website.
Routine inspection lands metal recycling firm with £650,000 fine
A major metal recycling firm has been hit with a £650,000 fine following a routine inspection by Britain’s workplace regulator.
ASM Metal Recycling, which operates four other metal recycling sites, including at locations in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, received enforcement action from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to implement effective control measures to protect workers.
HSE inspector, Emma Page, visited ASM Metal Recycling at its Griffin Lane premises in Aylesbury on 3 and 8 August 2023. While there, she observed dangerous working practices, including a failure to segregate moving vehicles from pedestrians as waste was being manually sorted.
During her inspection, HM Inspector Page was able to take videos evidencing these practices – the videos show three pedestrian workers wearing yellow hi-vis sleeveless jackets, sorting waste in the yard in close proximity to three 360 grab excavators operating behind them. As they continue to hand-sort the waste, a red HGV skip lorry pulls forwards and reverses towards and passed them. At this point, two of the workers have their backs towards the still reversing HGV. The footage clearly reveals there are no measures, such as barriers, to prevent the reversing vehicle coming into contact with, and causing injury, or worse, to the workers.
The subsequent HSE investigation further identified that ASM Metal Recycling Ltd had previously identified the risks of pedestrian-vehicle collision but had failed to implement effective control measures to prevent this. At these times, pedestrian workers were exposed to risks of being struck by a vehicle.
Read more about the inspection on the HSE website.
To keep up to date with the latest health & safety news and advice, follow us on social media: