Boiling brine in gumboots costs Wattie's $330,000

Heinz Wattie's in King St, Hastings. The company has been fined $281,000 and will pay $50,000 to a worker burnt by boiling brine. Photo / File

Food manufacturer Heinz Wattie's has been hit with a fine and reparation totalling more than $330,000 after a Hastings plant incident in which a worker was badly burnt as boiling brine started to fill his gumboots.

The worker will receive $50,000 in reparation and the company was fined $281,250 in a decision in Hastings District Court today in relation to the incident, which happened in May 2017.

Government workplace health and safety agency WorkSafe said a vat used to manufacture brine solution for use in various food products at the company's Hastings factory boiled over.

While attempting to turn the machine off at a wall switch near the vat, boiling brine overflowed from the vat and entered a worker's gumboots, causing severe burns, according to a summary before the court, after the company pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to ensure the health and safety of its worker.

A WorkSafe inquiry revealed Heinz Wattie's was aware that the vats were likely to boil over if left unattended, and that this was capable of causing serious injury.

The vats had boiled over on numerous occasions in the past, resulting in burns to another worker on one occasion, the summary said.

The investigation also found the liquid entered the worker's boots because the worker was not provided with adequate personal protective equipment, and the worker had not been given proper supervision or training.

WorkSafe head of specialist interventions Simon Humphries said the company should have known better.

"These vats had reached boiling point on many occasions, putting workers at risk of serious harm," he said. "Our investigation found workers were simply told to avoid vats when they boiled over. Heinz Wattie's should have had effective controls in place to eliminate the known risk to its workers."

He said that if companies became aware of a safety problem they were required to fix.

"They didn't," he said, "and that is simply not acceptable."