The County Court at Ballarat was yesterday told that the Ballarat food manufacturing company failed to provide training to the victim, whose right hand thumb was amputated after the workplace accident on February 21, 2007.

Crown prosecutor Justin Lewis said the victim and an electrician attended a broken down potato washing machine at 4am to repair it.

He said the victim put his hand in the machine and it suddenly started operating due to an electrical overload, causing his hand to get caught in a chain and sprocket.

"The accused production supervisor thought he had been trained in the lock-out procedure but he was not,'' Mr Lewis said.

The court was told that the same machine, which was old and regularly required maintenance, had a mechanical problem earlier that day and its side guards were replaced.

"There were some isolation procedures (in place). The machine was tagged and isolated earlier in the day. The difficulty was that while this procedure was undertaken earlier in the day, (the victim) had not received any training for it," Mr Lewis said.

McCain Foods pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to provide and maintain a safe working environment.

The prosecution said the maximum penalty for the offence was $966,870, but submitted that a fine ranging between $70,000 and $90,000 on each charge would be appropriate.

Mr Lewis said the company had prior convictions, which the prosecution regarded as serious.

Defence barrister Robert Taylor argued that the fines should be on an aggregate basis and at the lower end of the scale.

He said McCain Foods had made safety improvements to the machine since the incident and there were substantial training commitments at the company, with $5.9 million spent on health and safety over the past three years.

He said a supervision system was put in place in 2006 and, since 2007, the company closed one day a year for a safety training program for its employees.

Mr Taylor said the victim received training before he returned to full-time work four months after the incident.

McCain Food's national financial director and resource manager, a production manager and occupational health and safety representative attended yesterday's plea hearing before Judge Duncan Allen.

Sentencing is expected to be on Friday.