the feed

We’ve received many questions regarding OSHA regulations and the use of N95 masks in the workplace for protecting personnel from COVID-19, and whether the respiratory protection standard applies.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cities and states have shut down their restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Despite all of this, consumer demand for medical supplies and food continues to increase and truck drivers are crucial for maintaining the supply chain and keeping the economy going. 

To help in efforts to contain the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, Intertek Alchemy has created a new training course "COVID-19: Overview" to ensure frontline manufacturing, food processing, and service workers know how to:

Leading indicators are one way to provide line of sight into future performance, as well as indicate how you have performed so far. By balancing the use of leading indicators with lagging indicators, you will get an overall comprehensive understanding of exactly where you are and what you need to do, to get to where you want to be.

Joy Inouye, a research associate at Campbell Institute at the National Safety, recently shared key insights and information gleaned from her long history in this field. 

So how to get started?

• Have you ever heard these comments during an incident review?

• “We have walked by that hazard hundreds of time and never saw it!”

• “We can’t see the forest through the trees! We need fresh eyes on our facility to see the hazards we no longer see.”

The National Safety Council's Campbell Award recognizes leading companies in safety that share the NSC’s mission and vision of eliminating all preventable death in our lifetime. We believe safety starts with every individual, every work team, and every organization — and cascades from there into homes, communities, the road, and the workplace.

Creating a strong culture of safety requires continual effort beyond onboarding. Several leading companies still rely on a “one and done” method of training, where the new hire receives a barrage of information during orientation, yet is expected to retain and correctly apply that information on the floor. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t always work. Just as college students are advised not to cram the night before tests, studies show people are more likely to retain information when they’re fed knowledge in short spurts over a longer period of time. Instead of showering new hires with information, training should be delivered in a slow drip. A continuous learning environment consistently leads to the best results.

With significant environmental impacts in the last year made from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and problematic weather ahead, it’s imperative to have an emergency action plan in place. In fact, OSHA requires all workplaces with more than 10 employees to develop a written Emergency Action Plan (EAP) that identifies and coordinates necessary employer and employee actions during an emergency.

Emergencies have been happening for centuries. Here’s a brief look at a few incidents from history, reasons why companies need emergency action plans, and how to train your frontline workforce to take smart action in the face of danger.

Food manufacturing can be a grind… especially in milling. Yet recent wins in the industry make it all worth it. Consumers are snack-happy, so demand for savory treats, sweets, and baked goods is on the rise. Alternative flours are also ubiquitous. Thanks to the gluten-free craze, nut flours and non-traditional flours like sorghum and spelt are working their way into foods worldwide. And we can finally kiss the low-carb craze goodbye. These days, whole grains are considered essential to a healthy diet, including rice and corn, with more emphasis on nutrition rather than elimination. With the new nutritional focus comes the opportunity to add fortifications to flours and grains, which proves successful in differentiation, as well as in marketing.

Workplace injuries are common in manufacturing jobs that depend on manual labor, and they cost the food industry billions of dollars each year. Risk factors of workplace injury include exerting excessive force, performing the same tasks repetitively, and working in awkward postures — all conditions present on the floor in food manufacturing. Damage can range in scope, from minor sprains and strains, to more serious musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) like tendinitis or sciatica. 

With foreign markets expanding, unpredictable weather patterns, and rising regulations, finding innovative ways to succeed in agriculture is more important than ever. With science of crop production becoming more sophisticated, farmers have more access to data, where they used to rely more heavily on history and intuition.

The packaging industry faces unique safety and operational challenges. Between the threat of physical injury, safety hazards, sanitation issues, and expanding regulations, your frontline employees have a lot to manage. Addressing these concerns while maintaining high production levels will continue to test package manufacturing companies.

What went wrong? That’s the first question that comes to mind when any incident occurs. If an incident happens in your facility, learning what went wrong is just the first step in preventing future accidents. Using best practices for incident investigation paired with root-cause analysis can provide a solid foundation for fine tuning your serious-injury prevention strategy.

Summer is here, and for some it’s a time of rest and relaxation, but for food workers it can be the most physically taxing time of the year. The thousands of workers who make their living while exposed to the heat—indoors or out—are at an increased risk during the dog days of summer. In the food industry, heat illness is an often overlooked occupational injury, but the good news is that heat-related hazards can be prevented or minimized.