It is likely new GBBO contestant Lyon is going to be more worried about her cakes rising than about health and safety. But there is a good chance she will have one eye on it during the show, especially considering her background.
Below SHP outlines the various risk, legal cases and occupational health issues surrounding baking.
There are four main occupational ill health risks as a result of baking.
SHP is sure Lyon will be aware of all of these issues as she enters the tent. Maybe she will be giving Paul Hollywood a bit of friendly OSH advice.
Two of the main issues the Health and Safety Executive wants to highlight are around occupational asthma from flour dust and also dermatitis.
Flour dust can cause:
Flour dust is a hazardous substance as defined under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 (as amended).
The level of new cases of bakers getting occupational asthma is the highest in any occupation – and this is against a background of falling rates across all industries.
Some bakery additives/bread improvers contain enzymes, such as fungal alpha amylase, which are potent sensitisers. Exposure to them should be minimised through using improvers in liquid, paste or dust suppressed powder form.
Minimising exposure be done through using health surveillance and checking employees health for any adverse effects related to work. It may also involve checking skin for dermatitis or asking questions about breathing and may need to done by a doctor or nurse.
The HSE recommends:
It also states that clouds of flour arise from throwing, disposing of empty bags, and from brushing and dusting, as well as sieving and dough making.
The advice from the HSE? “Work gently! Start-up mixers on slow-speed until wet and dry ingredients are combined. Use dredgers or sprinklers for dusting.”
Here are some links to a couple of real-life incidents:
The company, which registers an annual pre-tax profit of £34m, was also fined £2m earlier this year following an incident in which a worker sustained life changing injuries following a fall.
Prior to the changes to the sentencing guidelines the company was fined £5,000 in 2014 after a worker seriously injured his hand.
Eating raw dough for cookies and similar bakes: It’s fairly simple. If it’s got eggs in it, and it’s not been cooked, then it’s not edible.
Washing your hands: Again eggs are a main culprit here. But if you are doing bakes involving raw meats then it is equally important. Indeed, as best practice it is good to wash your hands for at least 30 seconds with warm water and soap.
Keep surfaces clean: Anti-bacterial and sanitising sprays is the way to go.
Perishable items: Don’t leave them out in the warm kitchen. if you have milk, cheeses, meats, fruits and similar items which should be in the fridge, put them back in the cooler, where they belong.
Washing utensils and baking products: Again, avoiding contamination by cleaning.
Below is a comprehensive round-up of all the key COSHH issues around baking.
They are:
Dermatitis is an issue – especially if hands are wet many times a day or remain wet for long periods of time.
Control measures include:
There are a number of causes of injury in the baking workplace. Here are the areas of most risk:
Who knows how far Lyon will go in the Bake Off tent.
But practitioners can be sure that her work station may well be the safest ever on the show…
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Good idea also to roll tops of flour bags closed to minimise flour dust release into the air..
Your having a laugh this is a kitchen – cannot be compared to the risks in a bakery.
It is also surprising how many people do not realise that high concentrations of flour dust is an explosion risk or if they are aware, they under estimate the risk. I recall doing an inspection in around 2006/7 in a bakery with flour dust everywhere and being told ‘it’s okay, we only use gluten free flour’.
Your having a laugh this is a kitchen – cannot be compared to the risks in a bakery.
And that is just at home in the kitchen where unintentional “burns”, don’t mean the roast or cake and, ‘fire risk’ associated with particulates in the air combusting are lower than in industry.
But, ‘what about the other workers’, who constantly exceed their Work Exposure Limits (WEL) “everyday” trying to cope and tolerate the debilitating symptoms of “FATIGUE” manifesting in Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), WULD’s and MSD’s over the last 30 years ????
What about their ongoing presenteeism, 30 years worth of it, and average 20% loss in performance and productivity (one day in five) simply, just because their eyes are not bleeding across their workstation as a direct result of the regulations and/or legislation not doing what is says on the Tin?
The 1993 UK version says “DSE Regulation” however, the only ergonomic risk assessment is the physical one of their ‘workstations’ promoting mitigation of the hazards through appropriate adaptations to the equipment just, leaving out the ‘critical one’ the piece of equipment in the chain of causation, the one it is all about, the missing link, the Display Screen.
Unfortunately, stress as a driver in occupational health has sort been ignored in favour of safety in terms of accident prevention nevertheless, CVS and/or Screen Fatigue is NO ACCIDENT and nor is it some sort of “temporary self-inflicted anomaly” like, you know, an unknown mischievous little demon that hides in the gubbings of the workings of the magic picture lantern.
The causes of visual and physical repetitive stress have been known for years and where ‘reasonably practicable’ have been, sort of, generically addressed in making most man-machine interfaces adaptable yet, the DSE user operator is still expected to make all the adaptions except those already diagnosed with impaired vision, chicken and egg with CVS, and the disabled internet browser user aided by the W3C good practice guide for developing a user friendly screen interface.
If, visual impairment and Dyslexia are deemed disabilities it rather begs the question what about eye-strain and CVS classification as a “work-related occupational health risk” as, the harm and/or RSI type direct risk of injuries far exceeds the minority of employees requiring known and preexisting “access to work aids” while, by far, the majority of DSE user operators can predictably look forward to CVS / Screen Fatigue and WULD’s or MSD’s as a “given” ?
The employers know it, the occupational health industry knows it, the government knows it, the EU knows it (yet allowed the 2012 MSD Directive to be crushed), the WHO knows it so, as a Global pandemic evidenced in shed loads of past and present research over the years why, oh why, has it been left to fester unmitigated and unaddressed on the back-burner of occupational health other than they don’t know what to do about it ???
Its called ‘working for a living’
Sod’s Law dictates that she will burn herself on the oven door in tonight’s episode!
This is the reason H & S is scoffed at, so-called professionals going ‘over the top’ on what are very basic common-sense issues. Please keeps things in respective. This one will probably end up on the HSE’s ‘Myths list’
‘Absolute crackers’
It seems my comments on this ridiculous topic are being barred from view.