HAMILTON, Ont. – A judge has sentenced grocery store Nations Fresh Foods to pay a fine of $60,000, plus a 25 per cent victim fine surcharge, for an incident in which a worker was seriously injured by a meat-grinding machine more than two years ago. On Aug. 15, 2013, a supervisor at the Hamilton store instructed the worker to grind chicken with the machine, according to a court bulletin from the Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL). The grinder normally included a barrier guard that prevented a user’s hands from entering the inlet in which one deposited meat, but on this day, the guard had gone missing, the MOL stated. A moving augur inside the machine made contact with the employee and critically injured the worker as a result. MOL investigators later found that the machine’s operating instructions specifically warned that using the machine without the guard was hazardous. Nations Fresh Foods pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton to contravening Section 25 of Ontario Regulation 851, which states that machine guards must always be in place and that employers must ensure that this procedure is carried out. Justice of the Peace Ivana Baldelli ordered the company to pay the fine on Sept. 1 of this year.