By workplace & process
Behind familiar ingredients sit real respiratory hazards. Flour dust and process fumes need extraction - and the extraction needs testing like any other LEV.
The short answer
Food and drink production looks low-risk, but it hides genuine airborne hazards: flour and grain dust that can cause occupational asthma, process fumes from cooking and frying, and steam that carries other contaminants. Flour dust in particular is a hazardous substance under COSHH with an enforced exposure limit. Local exhaust ventilation controls these at source, and like any LEV it has to be tested to prove it is working.
The detail
Flour dust has a workplace exposure limit made up of a long-term limit of 10 mg per cubic metre averaged over eight hours and a short-term limit of 30 mg per cubic metre over fifteen minutes. But those figures are a ceiling, not a target. Flour dust is a respiratory sensitiser - an asthmagen - so exposure must be reduced as far below the limit as reasonably practicable; the HSE considers that good practice should get exposure below 2 mg per cubic metre. Flour dust and the enzymes in bread improvers are among the most common causes of occupational asthma in the country.
The hazard is not limited to flour. Many food dusts - spices, custard and soup powders, dried milk, sugar - behave similarly, and some are also explosion risks in quantity. Cooking and process fumes add another exposure. The common thread is that the control is extraction at the point the dust or fume is generated: at the tipping point, the mixer, the process vessel or the cook line, drawing the contaminant away before it reaches the operator.
What it means for you
A thorough examination and test of food-production LEV checks that each capture point is drawing the dust or fume away effectively, that the ducts and fan are moving air at the commissioned rate, and that filters and collectors are sound - at least every fourteen months. Food settings add their own wrinkles: extraction has to cope with a mix of dry dust and moist, steam-laden air, and hygiene requirements mean ducts and hoods need to stay cleanable as well as effective.
The usual failing is a capture hood that no longer draws enough air over a busy tipping or mixing operation, so a visible haze of flour builds in the operator's breathing zone. Because sensitisation can be triggered at low exposures and is often permanent, keeping that capture proven and effective is what protects a workforce that may otherwise have to leave the trade.
The service behind the guide
We test LEV across flour handling, process fumes and steam, and report on capture, airflow and any remedial work, so your food environment controls exposure at source.
Questions
Flour dust has a long-term limit of 10 mg per cubic metre over eight hours and a short-term limit of 30 mg per cubic metre over fifteen minutes. As it is an asthmagen, exposure should be reduced well below this - below 2 mg per cubic metre with good practice.
Because flour and grain dust, process fumes and steam-borne contaminants are genuine respiratory hazards. LEV captures them at source, and flour dust is a hazardous substance controlled under COSHH.
Yes. Flour dust and the enzymes in bread improvers are among the most common causes of occupational asthma in the UK, and sensitisation can be triggered at low exposures and is often permanent.
It often has to handle a mix of dry dust and moist, steam-laden air, and hygiene requirements mean ducts and hoods must stay cleanable as well as effective, which the examination takes into account.
At least every fourteen months under COSHH, with weekly user checks in between, so capture and airflow are proven against the commissioning benchmark.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We examine LEV on food and drink production - flour handling, process fumes and steam - and report clearly on control. Call or email to book.