Inspection Detail

Inspection: 119684850 - Monterey Pasta Company

Inspection Information - Office: Fremont District Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1 was operating a dough kneader and laminator. The dough kneader and laminator is fed loose mixed dough from an auger at the top of the open machine. The dough passes through a row of blades that cut and break up larger pieces of dough. The staggered blades rotate vertically on a horizontal spindle. The dough passes from the blades downwards to a series of rollers that flatten the dough before its carried to another machine. Employee #1 had been kneading beef dough which is red in color and was changing to garlic basil dough, which is white in color. After cleaning the machine he started the garlic basil and noticed that the dough had spots of red. Instead of shutting down the machine, he stood on the ledge of the machine and grabbed the larger red dough balls as the blades flipped them up. The sleeve of this smock was caught by one of the blades and he called out to a co-worker who stopped the machine. However, the blades did not come to an instant stop, but made another half turn, 180 degrees, pulling his arm into the top of the laminator. His arm was pinned between the blades and the inside wall of the laminator. As the blades continued to rotate, they punctured the inside of his forearm and came out the backside of his arm. He was in this position 20 to 30 minutes until the maintenance personnel were able to remove the blades from the spindle. Employee #1 was hospitalized.

Keywords: MIXER BLADE, PINNED, ROTATING KNIFE, MIXER, CAUGHT BY, CAUGHT BETWEEN, CRUSHED, NIP POINT, UNGUARDED