OHS in Bakeries and Patisseries: Flour Dust, Ovens, Nights

Hazard class of bread production and obligations

When bakery safety is discussed, most business owners’ first question is: “We are less hazardous, so what do we need?” In the Workplace Hazard Classes List renewed in 2025, 10.71.02 Manufacture of bread is in the less hazardous class. Businesses focused on pastry products, dry cakes or the sale of baked goods may have a different activity code; check your own code from your SGK (Social Security Institution) registration and with the steps in our article on how to find out your hazard class.

The basic obligations of a less hazardous bakery are:

In less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, the employer or their representative can run the OHS service themselves if they complete the training announced by the Ministry; pre-employment and periodic examinations are excluded from this. The same workplaces can also obtain the pre-employment report from a family physician or other public healthcare providers instead of the workplace physician. Since the deferral provision for these workplaces was annulled by the Constitutional Court decision of December 2025, the neighbourhood bakery is now also fully within the scope of the obligations. Details are in our article on obligations of less hazardous workplaces; for your own hours calculation, use the OHS obligation calculator tool.

Baker’s flour dust: a real risk to the airways

Flour dust is fine and light; it rises into the air and stays suspended for a long time when flour sacks are emptied, when flour is poured into the mixing bowl and when flour is dusted on the bench. Some enzymes used in flour and flour improvers are known causes of occupational asthma and allergic rhinitis. Symptoms often start with a runny nose, sneezing and itchy eyes; as work continues, coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath are added. Symptoms easing at weekends or on leave is an important clue to a link with work.

The measures, in the order of the hierarchy of controls, are:

1. Reduce dust at source. Instead of shaking the flour sack into the mixing bowl from above, empty it slowly close to the mouth of the bowl. Put the empty sack in a closed bag without folding or shaking it. Where possible, use a lidded mixing bowl and silo feeding.
2. Reduce dusting flour. Instead of dusting the bench with flour, use a dosing dredger or a non-stick surface.
3. Change the cleaning method. Cleaning floury floors and benches with compressed air or a dry broom puts the dust back into the air; use a damp cloth or a vacuum cleaner with a suitable filter.
4. Check ventilation. If there is local exhaust in the preparation area, check that it works; if not, check that general ventilation does not carry flour dust into the sales area.
5. Use respiratory protection as the last step. For short, dusty tasks such as emptying sacks, a suitable dust mask is provided; a mask alone is not the solution.

The workplace physician questions employees exposed to flour dust about respiratory symptoms at pre-employment and periodic examinations; the physician decides which tests are needed according to the risk. The legislation has no fixed frequency of lung function testing that applies to everyone.

Bread oven burn risks

Most bread oven burns are caused not by the oven itself but by the tasks done while working with it:

• Oven mouth and peel. In a stone oven, the arm and hand come close to the oven mouth when bread is loaded and pulled out. The peel handle must be long enough and sturdy, and long-cuffed heat-resistant gloves and arm guards must be used.
• Hot trays and trolleys. Trays coming out of a rotary or deck oven may be grabbed by mistake when left to cool on a rack trolley. Keep hot trolleys away from walkways and mark them visibly.
• Steam. In ovens with steam injection, when opening the door, keep your face and arms away from the line of the door and first open the door a little to release the steam.
• Hot oil and syrup. In patisseries, frying and boiling syrup carry the risk of both burns and oil fires. Water is never thrown on an oil fire; for choosing the right extinguisher, see our article on types of fire extinguisher.

In burner-fired ovens, maintenance of the fuel line, burner and flue is carried out by an authorised service; what to do when gas is smelled is set out in a written instruction.

Dough machines: hands being caught

Gathering dough by hand or adding flour to the bowl while the bowl of a dough mixer is turning is one of the causes of the most serious hand injuries in bakeries. Dividing, rounding, sheeting and slicing machines likewise carry crushing and cutting risks. The basic rules:

• The bowl guard must work together with an interlock that stops the machine when the guard is opened; removing the guard or bypassing the interlock for easier cleaning is unacceptable.
• To remove dough, scrape the bowl or clean, the machine is stopped and unplugged or its power isolated.
• Loose clothing, apron ties and jewellery are not worn near rotating parts; long hair is tucked into a cap.
• Dough is fed into sheeters and sugar machines with a feeding tool.

We covered the types of guards on food machinery in detail in our article on safety of food machinery. Carrying and stacking flour sacks is a separate risk for the back and shoulders; for technique, see our article on manual handling and lifting.

Shifts that start at night

In bakeries, work starts at night so that bread is ready for sale in the morning. Under Art. 69 of Labour Law No. 4857, night in working life is the period beginning at 20.00 at the latest and lasting until 06.00 at the earliest, of at most 11 hours; workers’ night work cannot exceed 7.5 hours. Overtime cannot be required in night work (Art. 41). In industrial work, employing child and young workers under 18 at night is prohibited (Art. 73).

From an OHS perspective, the effects of the night shift are:

• Fatigue and reduced attention increase the likelihood of errors at machines and ovens.
• The night team is often small; a trained person to respond in an emergency may not be on that shift.
• For a baker working alone at night, an arrangement for raising the alarm in the event of a fall, burn or sudden illness must be set up.

That is why emergency teams and first aiders are assigned not according to the bakery’s total number of employees but according to those actually present on each shift. The workplace physician provides health surveillance for night workers and assesses the effects of night work on sleep and diet. For details, see our article on working night shifts.

Bakery safety checklist

The questions below are a short self-audit tool for both neighbourhood bakery and patisserie safety. Every item you answer “no” to should be written into the risk assessment and the annual work plan as a measure.

• Have you checked your hazard class from your activity code?
• Are flour dust, burns, machinery and night work each included separately in the risk assessment?
• Does the lid interlock on the mixing bowl work?
• Have the sack emptying and cleaning methods been changed to reduce dust?
• Are the oven peel, heat-resistant gloves and arm guards adequate and in good condition?
• Has gas and burner maintenance been carried out by an authorised service and recorded?
• Is there at least one trained first aider and support staff member on each shift?
• Is employees’ hygiene training under food legislation also up to date? This is a separate obligation; see hygiene training certificate.

For bakeries and patisseries in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, see our OHS specialist and workplace physician services, and for other risks in the food sector, our food page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which hazard class is a bread bakery in?

In the 2025 Workplace Hazard Classes List, 10.71.02 Manufacture of bread is in the less hazardous class. Since patisseries and baked goods businesses may have a different code, check your own activity code from your SGK registration.

Is a workplace physician mandatory in a less hazardous bakery?

Yes. Appointing a physician and a specialist is mandatory for all workplaces. In less hazardous workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, the employer can run the service themselves if they complete the training, but pre-employment and periodic examinations are excluded from this.

Is a mask enough for flour dust?

No. Methods that reduce dust at source are applied first: slow sack emptying, lidded bowls, less dusting flour and damp cleaning. A mask is complementary protection for short, dusty tasks.

How many hours can night work last in a bakery?

Under Art. 69 of Law No. 4857, workers’ night work cannot exceed 7.5 hours. Night is the period beginning at 20.00 at the latest and lasting until 06.00 at the earliest, of at most 11 hours.