Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1513015.015 - Smithfield Foods

Inspection Information - Office: Iowa 0751910

Investigation Summary

At 10:15 a.m. on Monday, January 25, 2021, an employee was working for a firm that processed meat from carcasses. He was working in the South Mfg. LM part of the facility. He was operating a three-phase, 480 Vac Weiler model number 1109 industrial meat grinder, with serial number 78290. It ran at 144 rpm. He was using it to grind chicken. The grinder head had a diameter of 1.5 in. (267 mm). It had eleven plate holes, each with a diameter of 2 in. (51 mm) and a depth of 1.25 in. (32 mm). There were four similar grinders at the site. It was not clear whether that meant four other grinders or four grinders total. In this incident, the employee stopped the machine to clean off the grinder plate. He reached under the machine guard without having a clear view of the area he was cleaning to scrape the grinder plate clean with his hand. The grinding plate had not stopped moving. Because of their rotational kinetic energy, the auger and grinder head kept moving after a machine stop had been initiated. The employee's left index finger was caught in one of the plate holes of the grinder head. His finger contacted the blade behind the plate. The tip of the employee's left index finger was amputated. The employee was treated without hospitalization. Although the employee had pressed the STOP button on the grinder, he had not locked out the machine. The employee had used his hand instead of a scraping tool to clean the plate because no tool was available at the time of the incident. Workers said that they were unable to visually confirm that motion had stopped if the guard remained on or if meat that needed to be scraped was blocking the grinder head. Lockout instructions had been hung on each machine.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Blade, Blind Reaching, Caught By, Caught In, Cleaning, Finger, Fingertip, Food processing, Hand, Hand Tool, Instantaneous amputation, Lack of Work Procedures, Lockout, Lockout/Tagout, Meat Grinder, Meat Processing, Misjudgment, Misjudgment of Hazardous Situation, Obstructed View, Reach, Reaching, Rotating Parts, Traumatic Amputation