How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 2,529 severe cases involving food and beverage processing machinery over the last decade. Amputations, avulsions, and enucleations account for 82% of these injuries, reflecting the danger posed by high-speed blades, rollers, and gears.
These incidents frequently result in permanent disability, as fingers are the body part most affected in 85% of reported cases. The severity of these injuries often requires extensive surgery and long-term rehabilitation, impacting your ability to return to your previous role.
How these injuries happen
Most injuries occur when you become caught or entangled in running powered equipment during normal operation, which accounts for 56% of all recorded incidents. You are also frequently injured while cleaning or performing maintenance on machines that have not been properly locked out, leading to sudden contact with moving parts like metering gears, blades, or chains.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caught, entangled in running powered equipment— normal operation | 1,390 |
| 2 | Struck by rolling, sliding, or shifting objects—non-running | 629 |
| 3 | Struck by running powered equipment— during maintenance, cleaning, testing | 140 |
| 4 | Struck by running powered equipment— unspecified | 133 |
| 5 | Struck by running powered equipment— n.e.c. | 60 |
| 6 | Compressed between running equipment and other object(s) | 53 |
| 7 | Struck against stationary object | 33 |
| 8 | Struck by falling object | 15 |
Where injuries happen most
Manufacturing accounts for 59% of these severe injuries, as high-volume production lines require constant interaction with complex, high-speed machinery. Retail trade settings also see significant risk, particularly where you operate meat saws and slicers to process products for sale without adequate safety guarding.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these reports involve you suffering fingertip amputations while cleaning meat-processing machines or becoming entangled in chains and rollers during routine operation. If you were injured while operating or cleaning food processing equipment, an attorney can help you review the specific circumstances of your incident to determine if your employer failed to meet safety standards.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | WI | Manufacturing | "An employee was performing routine maintenance on an air valve when their right ring finger became caught in the valve. The employee sustained an amputation to the fingertip. " | |
| 2025 | TX | Retail Trade | "An employee was using a meat saw to cut pork product for sale and suffered a fractured finger and an amputation of the little fingertip." | |
| 2025 | NE | Manufacturing | "An employee was operating a hide puller when his hand became caught in the hide puller chain. He sustained shoulder and wrist injuries that required surgery." | |
| 2025 | KS | Manufacturing | "An employee was tearing down a sausage-linking machine as part of a weekly pipe clean out. As the meat piled up on the machine, he went to clean the meat off the top of the machine. The metering gears contacted his left index finger, resulting in a soft tissue fingertip amputation." | |
| 2025 | TX | Manufacturing | "An employee was operating a membrane skinner when her left little finger contacted the roller and blade, resulting in a laceration and hospitalization." | |
| 2025 | TX | Retail Trade | "An employee was cutting meat on a band saw when their left index finger was partially amputated." | |
| 2025 | NJ | Manufacturing | "On July 16, 2025, at 5:20 p.m., an employee in training was cleaning a machine that makes dough balls when the machine turned on and injured three fingers on his right hand, including a fingertip amputation on the middle finger." | |
| 2025 | ID | Manufacturing | "On 7/16/2025, at 12:45 PM, an employee was wet washing the blender in the production area. His fingers came into contact with the blender blades, resulting in partial amputation of two fingers on his left hand." | |
| 2025 | NE | Manufacturing | "An employee was filling a hopper that deposited blueberries in muffin trays. Two plastic plates inside the equipment closed, pinching and amputating the employee's left ring fingertip. The equipment was running and unguarded at the time." | |
| 2025 | NE | Manufacturing | "An employee was setting a piece of beef near the skinner machine when the blade amputated his right ring fingertip." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.
Frequently asked questions
Finger amputations are the most frequent injury associated with this equipment, representing 85% of all reported severe cases. The high-speed nature of blades and gears in processing plants makes even momentary contact devastating. An attorney can help you evaluate the long-term impact of such an injury on your future earning capacity.
Employers are strictly required to maintain machine guarding under OSHA standards to prevent you from contacting dangerous moving parts. If a guard was missing, bypassed, or improperly maintained, your employer may be held accountable for the resulting injury. An attorney can help you investigate whether your machine met these federal safety requirements.
Injuries during cleaning or maintenance are common, often resulting from a failure to follow lockout-tagout procedures that ensure equipment remains powered down. You should document the state of the machine and any safety protocols that were in place at the time. An attorney can help you gather this evidence to support your Workers' Compensation claim.
Workers' Compensation is designed to provide medical coverage and disability benefits for permanent injuries like the loss of a finger or fingertip. These benefits are intended to compensate for both the immediate medical costs and the permanent impairment caused by the accident. An attorney can help you ensure your claim accurately reflects the severity of your injury and the benefits you are entitled to receive.