Assessment of Hazards and Safety Practices in Food and Beverage Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

The assessment of safety hazards is fundamental to an effective risk management in any industry. Food and beverage production involves a variety of industrial processes with associated hazards. Effective safety practices are used to reduce workplace hazards and promote safety in the work environment. This paper evaluated safety hazards and safety practices in the food and beverage industry (FBI) in South-South, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire designed in accordance with World Health Organization standard was administered to a total of 144 workers, out of which 134 (93.0%) were completed and returned. The questionnaire was fashioned to extract information on types of hazards, awareness of safety hazards, implementation of hazards and risks control measures and the effectiveness of safety hazards and risk management programmes in the food and beverage industry. A modified four-point Likert Scale was used to analyze and evaluate the questionnaire. A Proportional Importance Index (PII) was used to rank each factor variable in the questionnaire. The study identified the major hazards in the FBI as working at height (with PII = 3.3, respondents = 91%); high voltage areas (PII = 3.1 and respondents = 90%), loud noise (PII = 3.0, respondents = 80%), machines and equipment vibration (PII = 2.8, respondents = 69%) and faulty machines and equipment (PII = 2.7, respondents = 65%). The level of awareness on safety hazards amongst the workers was statistically significant (p < 0.05, 95%CI; PII = 3.1 - 3.6). The outcome of intervention showed that FBI-2 improved from 79.62% to 96.82%, FBI-3 improved from 89.81% to 96.18%, FBI-4 improved from 78.34% to 95.54% on worker’s knowledge on the assessment of hazards and risk in the FBIs. There was effective implementation of safety hazards and risks management programmes and controls in the FBI. Administrative control measures are used to reduce hazards and workers make adequate use of personnel protective equipment. There is need to evaluate the risks associated with identified high ranking hazards and develop a risk management framework for the industry based on ISO 31000 and other relevant safety regulations and guidelines.

Identification of Industrial Hazards and Assessment of Safety Measures in the Chemical Industry, Nigeria Using Proportional Importance Index

“…Different factors were responsible for the respondents joining the chemical industry, however, job security and good working conditions were found to be the most attractive factors responsible for many of them joining the industry. This implies that most of respondents hope to secure their jobs up to retirement, this finding corroborated study by Afube et al [13].…”

“…Mann Kendall statistic was used to determine the level of agreement among the participants [21]. Cronbach's alpha coefficient formula [18,22] [13] to evaluate hazards and safety practices in food and beverage industry in Nigeria was adopted and used in this study to evaluate and rank the scores of respondents as shown in Table 2.…”

“…The identification and assessment of potential hazards can be considered as a proactive way of achieving safety in the chemical industry. The study employed the PII derived from the Relative Importance Index (RII) by [13] to rank variables, identify potential hazards and assess safety measures in work environment in the chemical industry in Nigeria.…”

Revolutionising Organisational Safety and Health Management in the Nigerian Manufacturing Industry via Active Employee Involvement

“…They seemed to be in unison in their perceptions that these practices have sufficiently catered to their safety needs. However, this information is in contrast with available evidence both in theory and practice (Otitolaiye, Abd Aziz, Munauwar, & Omer, 2021;Afube, Nwaogazie, & Ugbebor, 2019) and suggests the likelihood of either falsehood or disconnection from reality. Past studies (Wang et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2019;Subramaniam et al, 2016;Darwish et al, 2016) have shown that aside from the provision of HR practices, though important, the extent to which it satisfies needs weigh in the performance behaviour of employees.…”