Knife Safety, Sharpening and Personal Protective Equipment Procedure

Purpose. Sets the mandatory rules for issuing, carrying, sharpening, using and storing knives and steels, and the protective equipment that must be worn at every knife station.

1.Issue and control

Knives, steels and scabbards are issued by the department leading hand and recorded against the worker's name. Workers must return knives to the sterilised knife rack at the end of each shift. A worker must not use a knife that belongs to someone else and must not take a knife out of a production area.

2.Personal protective equipment

Every worker at a knife station must wear a mesh glove on the non-knife hand, a mesh apron or belly guard where the work instruction requires it, a cut resistant sleeve on the non-knife arm, and a wrist guard where the station involves pulling cuts. Personal protective equipment must be inspected at the start of each shift and damaged items must be exchanged before work starts.

• Mesh glove on the non-knife hand
• Belly guard for boners and slaughtermen
• Cut resistant sleeve on the non-knife arm
• Scabbard worn on the knife hand side
• Steel carried in the scabbard, never in a pocket

3.Sharpening and steeling

Knives are sharpened on the grinding wheel by trained knife room staff at the start of the shift and replaced at breaks where the work requires it. Workers must steel their knife frequently with short, controlled strokes away from the body, keeping the free hand clear of the blade path. Blunt knives increase force and injury risk and must be exchanged, not forced.

4.Safe cutting technique

Cut away from the body and away from the free hand wherever the cut allows. Keep the free hand behind the blade when the cut must be made toward it. Never catch a falling knife, never leave a knife on a table edge or conveyor, and never walk with an unsheathed knife. Stop cutting if another worker is within arm's reach of the blade path.

5.Sterilising and hygiene

Knives must be dipped in the steriliser at 82 degrees Celsius between carcases and whenever the knife touches a contaminated surface. Two knife rotation is mandatory on the slaughter floor. Scabbards must be cleaned and sanitised at every break.

6.Injury response

Any laceration, however small, must be reported to the first aider immediately and recorded on the Incident and Hazard Report Form the same shift. Product that has come into contact with blood from a wound must be placed on hold and the area cleaned and sanitised before work resumes. A worker returning after a laceration must wear a waterproof dressing and a glove over the dressing.