Top Tips for Safe Protein Processing
In the fast-paced environment of protein processing, your team’s safety relies on understanding the unique challenges presented by each type of protein they handle. From slippery surfaces to heavy lifting and sharp tools, the right safety gear and protocols are essential for injury prevention and productivity.
Poultry
Hazards: High risk of contamination, repetitive motion injuries, cut risks
Safety Tips:
- Cut resistant gloves are a must when working with sharp blades and bones, but they’re often not suitable for food handling. Disposable nitrile gloves can be worn over top of cut gloves to help prevent cross contamination and reduce the frequency of cut glove replacement.
- Wrist supports are an important accessory that can help prevent repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) that arise from repetitive cutting and deboning tasks.
- With poultry, preventing cross contamination is critical. Disposable or reusable sleeves and aprons should always be worn to prevent the spread of bacteria and keep any potential contaminants on workers’ clothes from coming into contact with food.
Ensure your team knows the proper way to don and doff gloves, aprons, and sleeves to prevent cross contamination. Not sure what the right way is? We can help!
Fish
Hazards: Slip/fall, wet surfaces, difficult handling
Safety Tips:
- Textured nitrile gloves are critical to enhance grip on slippery fish. Maintaining a strong grip not only prevents dropped product but decreases the risk of cuts and punctures due to handling accidents.
- Fish processing lines are prone to wet, slippery floors due to water, ice, and fish oil runoff that accumulates during processing. Water resistant, anti-slip work boots are a must to prevent slip and fall accidents. While anti-fatigue matting should be installed at every station where long periods of standing are required, they’re also an effective way to help mitigate slips and falls.
- Eye protection, such as goggles or face shields, are recommended to protect workers from splashes or fragments that occur during gutting and scaling.
Beef & Pork
Hazards: Cuts, musculoskeletal injuries
Safety Tips:
- When processing large pieces of protein with thick bones, the risk for cuts greatly increases due to the sharpness and size of cutting tools. Workers processing pork and beef should wear cut gloves with at least an ANSI A6 cut resistance level. It’s also wise to pair them with cut resistant sleeves to maximize hand and arm protection.
- Knife maintenance is incredibly important for large cutting tasks. Dull knives require much more force to cut which increases the risk of the knife slipping, causing more damage to hands in the event of an accident. Sharp knives also reduce hand strain, reducing the chance of RSIs.
- Sides of pork and beef are heavy and should always be moved while wearing a back brace or done as a team to prevent excessive back strain.
Don’t let protein cause your team unnecessary pain. For all your protein processing products and expertise, your Bunzl Safety expert is here to help.
