Alcoholic and soft drinks

Main causes of injury

  • Manual handling and lifting - especially barrels, casks and crates
  • Slips and trips - half the injuries are from slips (90% on wet floors) and half from trips
  • Being struck by falling objects, eg barrels, boxes, equipment
  • Falls from height - off ladders, work platforms, stairs and from vehicles
  • Machinery - mainly conveyors but also bottling machines, packaging machines, palletisers etc
  • Exposure to harmful substances - cleaning chemicals, hot liquids
  • Transport - especially lift trucks

Main occupational ill health risks

  • Musculoskeletal injury from heavy manual handling, eg of casks, kegs, crates, sacks and items of plant
  • Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) from repetitive handling, eg in bottling halls
  • Noise induced hearing loss from noisy plant, eg casking/kegging, decrating/washing, bottling, canning and packaging machinery
  • Occupational lung disease from exposure to grain and malt dust
  • Occupational lung disease and nasal cancer from exposure to hardwood dust in coopperages

Industry specific guidance

Link URLs in this page

  1. Food & drink manufacturehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/index.htm
  2. Common risks - in food and drink manufacturing industrieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/industries.htm
  3. Meat, poultry and fishhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/slaughter.htm
  4. Milling, animal feedshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/grain.htm
  5. Bakery productshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/bakery.htm
  6. Dairy productshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dairy.htm
  7. Fruit and vegetableshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/fruitveg.htm
  8. Alcoholic and soft drinkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/drink.htm
  9. Chilled and frozen products https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/chilled.htm
  10. Supply chainhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/chain.htm
  11. Safety risks overviewhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/safety-hazards.htm
  12. Manual handlinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/handling.htm
  13. Slips on wet or contaminated floorshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/slips.htm
  14. Falls from heighthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/falls.htm
  15. Workplace transporthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/transport.htm
  16. Struck by somethinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/struckby.htm
  17. Overview - Food processing machineryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/machinery.htm
  18. European CEN 'C' Standards for food processing machineshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/standards.htm
  19. Packaging machineryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/package.htm
  20. Overview - Prevention of dust explosionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosion.htm
  21. Selection and use of vacuum cleanershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosionapp1.htm
  22. Explosion relief for small bins and siloshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosionapp2.htm
  23. Overview - Occupational health topicshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/healthtopics.htm
  24. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/musculoskeletal.htm
  25. Dermatitishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dermatitis.htm
  26. Noise induced hearing losshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/noise.htm
  27. Overviewhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/asthma.htm
  28. Low dust flourhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/low-flour-dust.htm
  29. Exposure to disinfectantshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/disinfectants.htm
  30. Work-related stresshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/stress.htm
  31. Overview - Occupational rehabilitationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/rehabilitation/index.htm
  32. OH Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/rehabilitation/casestudies.htm
  33. Overview - Resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/information.htm
  34. Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/experience.htm
  35. Useful linkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/links.htm
  36. Food and Drink Manufacture Health and Safety Forumhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/forum.htm
  37. Topics of interesthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/live.htm
  38. Grain dust - Guidance Note (EH66)https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/eh66.htm
  39. Moving food and drink: Manual handling solutions for the food and drink industries (HSG196)https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg196.htm
  40. Moving food and drink: Manual handling solutions for the food and drink industrieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg196.htm
  41. Grain dust Guidance Note EH66 https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/eh66.htm
  42. British Soft Drinks Associationhttp://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/
  43. Food and Drink Federation (FDF)http://www.fdf.org.uk/

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Updated 2023-06-15