As a slicing operator, it’s not bad enough that some days may involve crawling into a slicing machine to fix or clean a part. But throw in being worried someone will accidentally turn it on due to lack of safeguards, and one doesn’t need to work too hard to imagine the high stress and danger levels for plant employees.
Certainly, slicing equipment operators are not strangers to some dicey situations, but even they have their limits. To keep them and other meat plant employees safe, the American Meat Institute recently released a 10-point “Safe Equipment Design Checklist,” with input from equipment manufacturers.