Accident and Near Miss Management in Non-Seveso Production Sites of the Italian “Food Valley”: the Case of a Large Wine Company

Identification and management of near misses constitute a standard approach for supporting safety management systems in high-risk Italian industrial plants subject to Seveso Directive. Accidents, quasi-accidents and injuries have always to be registered and recorded; moreover, this aspect is typically subjected to the control action of the surveillance bodies. Nonetheless, in recent years both the scientific literature and the national entities responsible for defending safety at the workplace have highlighted that even industrial contexts considered to be at lower risk, such as the manufacturing industry, can take great advantage in terms of accident prevention if they are able to focus on the identification of near misses. This work aims to analyse the specific sector of the food industry, starting from the results of a questionnaire concerning accidents and near misses, to which numerous food companies in Emilia-Romagna (the so-called “Food Valley” in Northern Italy) were subjected. Then, the case of a large local winery is investigated, to validate and to deepen the conclusions drawn from the survey. The occurred unwanted events are analysed and discussed. The obtained results are expected to contribute to show the meaning and the importance that the expression “near miss” acquires even in contexts other than the Seveso sites. At the same time, it has been possible to identify different specific phases of the entire wine production process in which unwanted events mainly occur.