Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1562815.015 - Port City Bakery

Inspection Information - Office: Appleton Area Office

Investigation Summary

At 2:30 p.m. on November 2, 2021, an employee was working as a machine operator for a firm that made pizza crusts. The employee was a level 3 mixer/divider operator. On this day, he was running the Line #4 divider. The divider took mixed dough from an overhead hopper, pushed it through the machine, cut it off at defined intervals, and deposited dough balls to certain weight dimensions onto a transfer conveyor. The divider was open on both ends to allow the conveyor to move through the section. On the night of the incident, the divider was allowing high levels of excess dough to push through the seals of the divider onto the conveyor. This extra dough affected the dough balls and caused them to be out of specification. The operator had been instructed by his supervisor to remove the excess dough. The employee reached into the divider, unaware of how close he was to a pinch point inside the divider. His thumb was caught by the divider. He suffered a partial amputation to the left thumb. He was hospitalized.

Keywords: Amputated, Amputation, Caught By, Food processing, Hand, Lockout, Machine Guarding, Nip Point, Partial Amputation, Reaching, Thumb