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Bakery products

Main causes of injury

  • Manual handling and lifting - especially lifting heavy and awkward loads and pushing wheeled racks
  • Slips and trips - mostly due to wet or contaminated floors
  • Falls from height - off ladders, stairs, work platforms, plant and vehicles
  • Struck by an object (eg hand knife) or striking against an object (eg plant)
  • Machinery - conveyors, wrapping machinery, pie and tart machines, dough brakes, moulders, mixers, roll plant, pinning rolls/belts
  • Transport - including fork lift trucks and vehicles at loading bays
  • Exposure to harmful substances and hot objects, eg splashes/vapour from cleaning chemicals, contact with hot equipment
  • Entry into silos - risk from engulfment, lack of respirable atmosphere, mechanical hazards (eg sweep augers)

Main occupational ill health risks

  • Musculoskeletal injury from manual handling, eg of sacks, bags and product
  • Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) from repetitive work, eg tin loading, lidding, cake decorating, packing operations
  • Noise induced hearing loss from noisy areas, eg depanning, bread slicing, dough mixing
  • Occupational asthma[38] and respiratory irritation from exposure to flour dust

Flour dust

Flour dust can cause:

  • irritation to the eyes (conjunctivitis) resulting in watering, painful eyes
  • irritation to the nose (rhinitis), resulting in a runny nose
  • occupational dermatitis, resulting in redness, itching and blistering of the skin
  • asthma if a worker becomes sensitised, resulting in breathlessness, tightness in the chest, wheezing and bronchitis

Flour dust is a hazardous substance as defined under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 (as amended). Although the overall incidence rate of occupational asthma has decreased since 1999, the rate of new cases amongst bakers as reported by occupational physicians is now the highest of any occupation in any industry.

Flour dust has been set a workplace exposure limit (WEL) comprising a long-term exposure limit of 10mg/m3 (averaged over 8 hours) and a short-term exposure limit of 30mg/m3 (averaged over 15 minutes). However, flour dust is an asthmagen and exposure should therefore be reduced as far below the WEL as is reasonably practicable. By adopting good control practice, HSE considers that less than 2mg/m3 (averaged over 8 hours) is usually achievable. Published guidance on engineering controls and good working practices to prevent dust becoming airborne is available from the Federation of Bakers[39].

Some bakery additives/bread improvers contain enzymes (eg fungal alpha amylase) which are potent sensitisers, so exposure to them should be minimised. This may be achieved by using improvers in liquid, paste or dust suppressed powder form.

Find out how low-dust flours can reduce asthma risks for bakers[40].

Industry specific guidance

Link URLs in this page

  1. Food & drink manufacturehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/index.htm
  2. Common risks - in food and drink manufacturing industrieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/industries.htm
  3. Meat, poultry and fishhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/slaughter.htm
  4. Milling, animal feedshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/grain.htm
  5. Bakery productshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/bakery.htm
  6. Dairy productshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dairy.htm
  7. Fruit and vegetableshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/fruitveg.htm
  8. Alcoholic and soft drinkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/drink.htm
  9. Chilled and frozen products https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/chilled.htm
  10. Supply chainhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/chain.htm
  11. Safety risks overviewhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/safety-hazards.htm
  12. Manual handlinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/handling.htm
  13. Slips on wet or contaminated floorshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/slips.htm
  14. Falls from heighthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/falls.htm
  15. Workplace transporthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/transport.htm
  16. Struck by somethinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/struckby.htm
  17. Overview - Food processing machineryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/machinery.htm
  18. European CEN 'C' Standards for food processing machineshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/standards.htm
  19. Packaging machineryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/package.htm
  20. Overview - Prevention of dust explosionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosion.htm
  21. Selection and use of vacuum cleanershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosionapp1.htm
  22. Explosion relief for small bins and siloshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosionapp2.htm
  23. Overview - Occupational health topicshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/healthtopics.htm
  24. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/musculoskeletal.htm
  25. Dermatitishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dermatitis.htm
  26. Noise induced hearing losshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/noise.htm
  27. Overviewhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/asthma.htm
  28. Low dust flourhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/low-flour-dust.htm
  29. Exposure to disinfectantshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/disinfectants.htm
  30. Work-related stresshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/stress.htm
  31. Overview - Occupational rehabilitationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/rehabilitation/index.htm
  32. OH Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/rehabilitation/casestudies.htm
  33. Overview - Resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/information.htm
  34. Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/experience.htm
  35. Useful linkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/links.htm
  36. Food and Drink Manufacture Health and Safety Forumhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/forum.htm
  37. Topics of interesthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/live.htm
  38. Occupational asthmahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/asthma.htm
  39. Federation of Bakershttps://www.fob.uk.com/
  40. low-dust flours can reduce asthma risks for bakershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/low-flour-dust.htm
  41. Prevention of dust explosions in the food industryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosion.htm
  42. Federation of Bakers: A Baker's Dozen - Thirteen essentials for health and safety in bakerieshttps://www.fob.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BAKERS-DOZEN-MASTER-DEC-2014-July-2018-amendments.pdf
  43. A Baker's Dozen - Thirteen essentials for health and safety in bakerieshttps://www.fob.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BAKERS-DOZEN-MASTER-DEC-2014-July-2018-amendments.pdf
  44. Federation of Bakers (FoB)https://www.fob.uk.com/
  45. Craft Bakers Associationhttp://www.craftbakersassociation.co.uk/
  46. Food and Drink Federation (FDF)http://www.fdf.org.uk/
  47. Chilled Foods Association (CFA)http://www.chilledfood.org/
  48. Food Standards Agencyhttp://www.food.gov.uk/

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Updated 2023-06-15