A DUSTING DOWN FOR THE FOOD SECTOR


Cleaning is crucial in food manufacturing, and not just for the obvious reasons. James White


of Denis Rawlins Ltd digests the latest news from the HSE and developments in the cleaning equipment market.


Amid our daily routines we can lose sight of the importance of cleaning.


The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) provided a reminder with its January announcement of a crackdown on food manufacturers. The HSE’s unannounced inspections are focusing on workers’ exposure to flour dust as well as musculoskeletal disorders caused by manual handling and repetitive tasks.


The health of employees in others sectors can be impacted by dusts and inadequate cleaning. But flour dust is a significant problem in bakeries, cake and biscuit manufacturers. It’s the second most common cause of occupational asthma in the UK.


This is not the only, or even most serious, risk from flour dust: when suspended in a cloud within a confined space and mixed with enough air, it’s liable to explode.


Dust is often allowed to accumulate on high-level surfaces, whether or not it’s of the combustible variety. The reasons are pretty obvious. Spaces above ducting, pipework, storage tanks, plant or on high sills are inaccessible. There’s the cost and disruption associated with access platforms, which may involve specialist contractors or equipment hire. Putting people to work at height also poses a risk in itself.


These factors may explain the low standards seen in high places; even in a prestigious hospitality and business venue in central London, where I was disappointed to see the clearly visible dark shadow of dust on its ornate cornicing.


More often than not in today’s cleaning equipment market there is a novel or relatively low-cost answer for the most daunting of tasks, if you know where to look. High-level cleaning is no exception.


Carbon fibre poles combine incredible lightness with rigidity, especially where


32 | EXPERT ADVICE


the sections have a failsafe locking mechanism. When equipped with a standard high-power vacuum – and cleaning heads and attachments also made from the same ultra-light material – any operative using the system can easily clean interior areas up to 11m from ground level.


This system also incorporates wireless video cam technology so the operator can observe the progress of the cleaning operation.


Of course, other more mundane safety risks are more pervasive in the industry – from slips to food contamination. But again, there are simple and cost-effective measures that can prevent incidents.


For example, forklift trucks tend to track moisture, oils and soils on their wheels into factory buildings and warehouses. These can then spread widely by foot and pose a slip risk to personnel. Special mats designed to trap and absorb this material are highly effective, durable and low-cost.


Floors in commercial kitchens and food processing plants can also become treacherous due to grease, spills and condensation. Mopping – an old bugbear of ours tackled in previous articles – compounds the risk and is inherently unhygienic. Yet there are economical, mechanised cleaning


In the US there were more than 115 reported dust explosions in the 10 years to 2003, many in grain elevators. In Cheshire a wood mill producing wood flour – used as low-density filler in a range of industrial processes – exploded in 2015, killing several workers.


Specially sealed and earthed electrical equipment and motors are required in environments where combustible dust is a hazard. The HSE guidance on the prevention of dust explosions in the food industry calls on companies to ‘maintain scrupulous cleanliness’ using fully earthed vacuum cleaning systems and to avoid sweeping brushes and compressed air. In hazardous areas, vacuum cleaners should be certified to ATEX, the EU standard for kit in explosive environments.


methods that dispense only clean solution and suction away all soils.


Toilets can easily become bio-hazard transfer stations, spreading germs to food preparation areas. A similar approach – spraying cleaning solution and wet vacuuming, again using a self-contained machine – can ensure cleaning in washrooms to high hygienic standards, with ATP readings of less than 10.


All these systems soon pay for themselves, either by saving time and labour, or replacing more disruptive and expensive methods.


www.rawlins.co.uk twitter.com/TomoCleaning


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