Ensuring Food Safety and Worker Health – The Vital Role of Dust & Fume Extraction Systems in Food Manufacturing
Ensuring food safety is vital in food manufacturing, where the presence of dust could cross-contaminate edible products, in turn risking the health of the general public, and potentially result in lawsuits against the company.
Safeguarding employee health is also essential, and implementing effective dust and fume extraction systems can mitigate the dangers caused by harmful dust and fumes. These include the risks of respiratory illnesses and cancer, and even the potential of explosions.
Processes in food manufacturing
The food industry manufactures a multitude of products, all with differing ingredients, compositions and amounts of dust generated through the manufacturing process. To determine the best extraction solution for your needs, you need an understanding of your application, and the type of processed ingredients you are using.
Typical applications of the food industry include silo-venting, bulk handling, sack-tipping, weighing, mixing, blending and sieving. Handled ingredients could include sugar, instant coffee, dried milk, flour, coarse grains, fine spices, and more. It’s vital that comprehensive risk assessments (CoSHH and DSEAR) are conducted, for each application, to determine the most suitable extraction solution.
Industry challenges
There are three major challenges for manufacturers in the food industry: cross–contamination, worker health hazards, and the risk of combustion.
Ingredient dust travelling from one process area to another in a factory can cause exposure to allergens from ingredients such as nuts or gluten, or a pathogen outbreak from the spread of micro-organisms. Controlling, containing, and disposing of food dust minimises the potential spread of contaminants, stopping them from re-entering the processing environment.
The airborne dust from raw food material could be composed of organic and inorganic particles such as plant material, insect parts, pesticide residues, and bacteria, which can be incredibly harmful when inhaled by workers. Processes such as sifting, mixing, and weighing certain ingredients, can infiltrate the lungs of employees, causing occupational asthmas. There are also carcinogens present in certain dusts and fumes.
Another large risk in the food industry is the potential of dust-related fires and explosions. Everyday foods like flour, custard powder, and coffee can generate potentially combustible dust clouds, creating an explosive atmosphere. The small particles generated, when ignited, can burn quickly, causing a potentially fatal explosion.
How our dust extraction systems can help
Our dust extraction systems offer tailored solutions to effectively address the needs of manufacturers operating in the food industry. The extraction of airborne dust and fume at source is vital for the protection of employees, preventing cross-contamination, and reducing the risk of explosions.
We offer a wide range of filter solutions, developed to aid the dust extraction from various processes in food manufacturing, ranging from filters designed to vent bulk storage silos, to auto clean filters which collect industrial process dust.
With the need to avoid cross-contamination in the food industry vital, our systems provide the features to change filters easily and safely. The Bag-In/Bag-Out method of filter changes uses special heavy-duty bags connected to integrated collars on the collector, which are attached using rubber gaskets and band clamps to create a dust-tight seal. This ensures that potential allergens or harmful dust particles can’t re-enter the air and breathing zone of operators or maintenance staff undertaking the task of changing spent filters.
Benefits to your business
By implementing our dust extraction systems, you can ensure compliance with the directives and legislation that governments have put in place to protect the safety of employees whilst at work.
The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR) requires employers to control risks to safety from fire and explosions. DSEAR requires employers to find out what dangerous substances are in their workplace, and what the risks are, as well as put in place measures to remove or control those risks. It also requires employers to identify and classify areas of the workplace where explosive atmospheres may occur.
Our systems efficiently and effectively remove harmful dust and fumes at source, helping to protect the safety of your employees. As well as this, our fully trained engineers will help and advise you on new installations and upgrades, to ensure your businesses continues to meet regulations.
Do you need help in improving the food safety and worker health within your food manufacturing process? Speak to our team today.
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