Cheese Maker Fined $60,000 for Amputation of Worker’s Two Fingers

Workers for a cheese manufacturer were operating the moulding unit of a stretching machine when it began to malfunction as the unit repeatedly got clogged with cheese. The machine was powered down, fixed and then restarted. But the moulding unit continued to clog. A worker reached into a discharge chute to manually clear the clog and his fingers got caught in a pinch point, resulting in the amputation of two fingers. The MOL concluded that the moulding unit didn’t have a guard or other device to prevent access to the pinch point. The manufacturer pleaded guilty to a guarding violation and was fined $60,000 [Silani Sweet Cheese Ltd., Govt. News Release, Aug. 30, 2013].