Major Bolton based food factory fined £800k for worker injuries

A major British food factory based in Bolton has been ruled as responsible for injuries sustained by two workers.

Stateside Food, who have a factory based in the Westhoughton, Bolton, were deemed responsible for two separate incidents during 2020 which resulted in serious harm. The company specialises in pizza, with their products stocked by many prominent UK supermarkets.

An investigation launched by the Heath and Safety Executive found that the company ‘adequately guard their machinery, did not provide suitable and sufficient checks to ensure that their protective measures were working effectively, and allowed the disabling of guarding systems and access to dangerous parts of machinery’.

‘Life changing’ injuries

One of the injured workers, Andrew Holloway, had his hand crushed by a machine while on a shift.

“My right hand was drawn into the roller on the machine and when I pulled my hand out my fingers were hanging off,” he said.

Mr Holloway required a second operation to remove more of his middle finger as the tissue had not healed properly.

Stateside Foods Limited of Lancaster Way, Westhoughton, Bolton, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) and 3 (1), of the Health and Safety at Work Act, resulting in a fine of £800k.

 HSE inspector Leanne Ratcliffe said the case should “send a message to industry about how important it is understand the risks of bypassing guarding arrangements, and to re-evaluate their own guarding arrangements and procedures to eliminate any access to dangerous parts of machinery”.