A meat processing plant in Ajax, Ontario, Canada has pleaded guilty and fined $82,500 for two separate incidents in which workers suffered hand injuries.
D & S Meat Products Ltd., operating as Elite Meats, operates a facility at 220 Clements Road in Ajax. On May 26, 2014, a worker was assigned the task of loading frozen blocks of meat into a grinder machine. One block was too frozen to be drawn into the grinder machine by the rotating feedscrew. When the worker pushed down on the block of meat, the meat suddenly moved and the worker's hand was pulled down into the hopper toward the feedscrew. As a result the worker suffered a partial amputation.