By sector / Bakeries
A bakery breaks the usual grease model. Its signature contaminant is flour dust - airborne, explosive, and a health hazard - and dust is cleaned nothing like grease.
A different contaminant
Most commercial kitchen deep cleaning is about grease - the aerosolised fat a fryer or chargrill throws into the canopy and duct. A bakery makes comparatively little of that.
Its signature contaminant is flour dust, and dust behaves nothing like grease. It is airborne, it settles on every ledge, it packs into extract and ductwork, and - crucially - it is both a health hazard and an explosion hazard. That single fact changes how a bakery has to be cleaned, and it is why doing it the ordinary way can make things worse rather than better.
The counter-intuitive part
Flour dust is one of the most common causes of occupational asthma in Britain, and the HSE opened a fresh round of inspections at larger bakeries through 2026 to check that airborne flour and enzyme exposure is controlled under COSHH.
Here is the trap: cleaning done wrong makes it worse. The HSE is explicit that flour spills must never be cleared with dry brushing or compressed air, because both throw the dust straight back into the air. The correct method is an industrial vacuum - at least M class - or wet cleaning. And where dust can form a cloud, it can also ignite: HSE guidance on dust explosions in the food industry treats flour as combustible, which is why spark-proof vacuum motors and proper housekeeping matter as much as the cleaning itself.
Three deposits, one building
A bakery's extract still needs cleaning, but the deposit is different: fine flour and baked-on carbon rather than a creosote-like grease film, often built up in neglected ducting where it is both a fire load and a dust reservoir. Ovens carry carbonised sugar and grease at the deck and door.
The proving room is its own problem. It is deliberately warm and humid to raise dough, which is exactly the environment mould and yeast films like, so it needs a sanitation approach closer to a damp-room clean than a degrease. Three different deposits - dust, carbon and damp-room growth - each needing its own method, all under one roof.
What a bakery clean settles
A proper bakery deep clean vacuums and wet-cleans dust from surfaces, high level and accessible duct without re-dispersing it, degreases and decarbonises the ovens and extract, and sanitises the proving and prep areas.
What it cannot replace is the day-to-day COSHH system the HSE actually inspects for: at-source dust extraction kept in test, low-dust flour and handling methods, and health surveillance for the people who breathe the air. The clean removes what has built up; the control system is what stops it building in the first place.
Questions
No. The HSE says flour must never be cleared by dry sweeping or compressed air - both re-suspend the dust into the air people breathe. The correct method is an industrial vacuum, at least M class, or wet cleaning.
Yes. In the right concentration flour is combustible, and HSE guidance treats it as a dust-explosion hazard - which is why spark-proof vacuums and disciplined housekeeping are used in bakeries.
The extract still loads up - with fine flour and baked carbon rather than a heavy grease film - and remains a fire path, so it is cleaned and certificated, but the method reflects dust rather than a creosote-like deposit.
It is kept warm and humid on purpose to raise dough, which favours mould and yeast growth, so it needs sanitising like a damp room rather than degreasing like a cookline.
It clears the accumulation, but the HSE inspects your ongoing controls - at-source LEV extraction kept in test, low-dust flour and handling methods, and health surveillance. The clean supports those; it does not replace them.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We vacuum and wet-clean flour without re-dispersing it, decarbonise ovens and extract, and sanitise proving rooms - then certificate the work. Tell us your bakery's layout.