Flour Dust Monitoring
Personal IOM-head sampling for the 10 mg/m³ 8-hr TWA and 30 mg/m³ 15-minute STEL. UKAS-accredited gravimetric analysis. For bakeries, flour mills, pizza kitchens, pasta makers and ingredient packers.
The hidden leading cause of UK occupational asthma
Flour dust is one of the leading causes of work-related asthma in the United Kingdom — consistently in the HSE's top three reported occupational respiratory sensitisers. Even small bakeries handling sieved flour, dusting flour or weighing ingredients can generate short-term peaks well above the 30 mg/m³ STEL.
The Workplace Exposure Limit is 10 mg/m³ as an 8-hour time-weighted average (inhalable), with a 30 mg/m³ 15-minute short-term exposure limit. Crucially, because flour is a respiratory sensitiser, any worker who develops baker's asthma can be reacting to concentrations far below the WEL — meaning controls must aim well below the limit, not just at it.
We carry out personal IOM-head sampling per MDHS 14/4 across the shift, with task-specific short-term samples covering the highest-exposure activities (sieving, tipping, weighing, dough mixing). Filters are analysed gravimetrically at a UKAS-accredited laboratory.
Bakery & Flour-Handling Operations We Survey
Each of these task families typically delivers the highest exposures and is where we focus sampling resource.
Plant Bakeries
High-throughput automated production lines. Dust hotspots typically at flour silo intake, ingredient weighers, divider tipping and crumb conveyors.
Craft & Artisan Bakeries
Dough mixing, bench dusting and proving operations. Hand sieving and bench flouring are routinely the highest-exposure tasks even in small bakeries.
Flour Mills
Roller mills, sifter floors, packing lines and tanker loading. We work alongside the in-house safety team and report against both the EH40 WEL and the operator's own internal targets.
Pizza Kitchens & Pasta Makers
Restaurant and quick-service kitchens making dough on site — bench-flouring and rolling operations can give surprising short-term exposures in small kitchens with limited extraction.
Ingredient Packers & Re-Packers
Manual scooping and bagging of bulk flour into retail-size packs is one of the dustiest food-industry tasks.
Cake & Biscuit Manufacturers
Premix tipping, ingredient weighing and depositor cleaning. Often the highest exposures are from end-of-shift cleaning rather than production itself.
How we sample flour dust to MDHS 14/4
Full-shift TWA plus targeted short-term samples to capture the highest-exposure tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the flour dust WEL in the UK?
The Workplace Exposure Limit for flour dust is 10 mg/m³ as an 8-hour time-weighted average (inhalable fraction), with a 30 mg/m³ 15-minute short-term exposure limit. Because flour is a respiratory sensitiser, COSHH requires exposure to be reduced as low as reasonably practicable below the WEL.
Why is flour dust monitoring important if my bakery looks clean?
Flour dust is a respiratory sensitiser, meaning some workers develop occupational asthma at concentrations well below the WEL. A visually clean bakery can still have invisible airborne flour at sensitising levels, particularly during sieving, weighing and tipping tasks. Personal sampling is the only way to know.
How often should we monitor flour dust?
For most bakeries we recommend an initial baseline survey, then annual re-monitoring — or sooner if the production layout, throughput or ingredients change, or if a worker is diagnosed with occupational asthma. Where exposure is close to the WEL, six-monthly monitoring is appropriate.
Does respiratory health surveillance replace dust monitoring?
No. They are complementary obligations under COSHH. Health surveillance (Regulation 11) detects asthma early in individual workers; exposure monitoring (Regulation 10) demonstrates that controls are working at a process level. You need both.
How much does flour dust monitoring cost?
A typical baseline survey of a single bakery covering 4 to 6 workers across day and night shifts starts from around £900 to £1,500 plus VAT, with UKAS-accredited gravimetric analysis at approximately £40 per sample. See our cost page for examples.