Meat, poultry and fish

Main causes of injury

  • Being struck by hand tools including knives, especially during boning out etc
  • Manual handling and lifting - especially lifting heavy and awkward loads
  • Slips - mostly due to wet or greasy floors
  • Machinery - such as conveyors, bandsaws, derinders, skinning machines, pie and tart machines, packaging machinery
  • Transport - including fork lift trucks and vehicles at loading bays
  • Falls from height - off ladders, stairs, work platforms, plant and vehicles
  • Exposure to harmful substances and hot objects, eg splashes/vapour from cleaning chemicals

Main occupational ill health risks

  • Musculoskeletal injury from manual handling, eg lifting boxes of product
  • Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) from repetitive work, eg from cutting, boning, jointing, trussing and evisceration
  • Noise induced hearing loss from noisy areas, eg powered saws, blast-freezers/chillers, bowl choppers, packing machinery
  • Infections from micro-organisms, eg Campylobactor in poultry processing
  • Occupational asthma from aerosol proteins in fish processing
  • Carcinogenic risk from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from smoking fish and meat products
  • Ill health from long term working at reduced temperatures

BMPA Health and Safety Committee

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) oversees an industry H&S committee which meets several times a year. The committee comprises:

  • BMPA
  • Major meat producers
  • Agricultural Horticultural Development Board
  • Food Standards Agency
  • Meat Training Council
  • National Federation of Meat and Food Traders
  • International Meat Trades Association
  • Health and Safety Executive
  • Trade unions

The committee considers newly arising issues, writes guidance for the meat/slaughtering industries and communicates information to the industries. Current guidance can be found in BMPA's Health and Safety Guidance Notes for the Meat Industry[38].

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. Health and Safety Guidance Notes for the Meat Industryhttps://bmpa-my.sharepoint.com/personal/info_britishmeatindustry_org/Documents/BMPA-WebsiteFiles/PublicWebsiteFiles/Resources/Health%20%26%20Safety/Health%20and%20Safety%20Guidance%20Notes.pdf?slrid=690c4c9e-20ed-5000-116f-4a64cbb5e872
  39. British Meat Processors Association (Health and Safety Guidance Notes)https://britishmeatindustry.org/
  40. Guideline No.26https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/information.htm#other
  41. A recipe for safety: Occupational health and safety in food and drink manufacturehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg252.htm
  42. food and drink: Manual handling solutions for the food and drink industries https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg196.htm
  43. British Meat Processors Association (BMPA)http://www.bmpa.uk.com/
  44. British Poultry Council (BPC)http://www.britishpoultry.org.uk/
  45. Chilled Foods Association (CFA)http://www.chilledfood.org/
  46. Food Standards Agencyhttp://www.food.gov.uk/
  47. Food and Drink Federation (FDF)http://www.fdf.org.uk/

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Updated 2023-06-15