Occupational Safety for Bakery Workers
How will you practice occupational health and safety as a baker in a restaurant? If you own and operate a bakery business, this pressing question is more than just theoretical. Ensuring occupational safety for all your workers is of paramount importance, even if you have an extensive Bakery Insurance policy currently in place. Before you can take steps to prevent workplace accidents, it’s important to be able to identify potential risks and understand how you can equip your employees with basic safety knowledge. What are the hazards in the bakery? Keep on reading to find out.
Examine Every Aspect of the Bakery To Identify Potential Hazards
The first step in improving your safety standards is to do a thorough assessment to identify potential hazards. Although your specific risks may depend on your bakery’s configuration and layout, common bakery hazards may include:
- High levels of dust or baking ingredients, such as flour, that could lead to asthma
- Areas that frequently experience oil spills or spills of other ingredients that could then lead to slips and falls
- Areas that often contain obstructions and other safety hazards for employees moving around the bakery
- Areas with poor lighting and visibility
Provide All Bakery Employees With Extensive Safety Training
Having well-trained employees is another way your business can ensure high-quality occupational safety standards. If you don’t already offer extensive safety training for new employees, now may be the time to start implementing it. Make sure your training courses cover essential topics such as:
- How to practice proper workplace hygiene
- How to dress while at work in order to minimize the risk of bodily injury
- How to clean up after every baking session
- Where to safely store baking equipment
- How to identify potential signs of occupational asthma
- Whom to contact with pressing safety concerns
Keep the Business’s Facilities Spotless To Prevent Slips and Falls
Lastly, simply keeping the bakery clean to prevent slips and falls can be a helpful move. Make sure you:
- Wash and dry the floors regularly, and put up wet floor signs when necessary
- Clear floors and walkways of any potential obstacles or tripping hazards
- Store baking essentials in cabinets and drawers and keep countertops clear when possible
- Replace faltering lightbulbs to ensure adequate lighting levels in the facilities
- Invest in regular housekeeping and janitorial services to clean up any spilled ingredients and keep the facilities spotless
When you operate a bakery business, it’s important to ensure occupational safety for all employees. Taking reasonable action to prevent workplace hazards is not only the responsible thing to do but may be legally required for your company. Even if you already hold a thorough Bakery Insurance policy, you may want to review your occupational safety standards to ensure they’re up to snuff. By identifying potential hazards, providing your workers with safety training, and keeping all facilities spotless, you can help ensure worker safety every day at your bakery.
About Byrnes Agency
At Byrnes Agency, we offer insurance solutions that can be tailored to meet your specific needs. Whether you’re looking for personal policies or commercial coverage, we have the right coverage for you. To learn more about our products, contact us today at one of our two locations.
If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read here and would like to know when we’ve published a new blog post, please “like” us on our Facebook page, and share this with your Connecticut neighbors.
Dayville Office
Phone: (860) 774-8549
394 Lake Rd
Dayville, CT 06241
United States
info@byrnesagency.com
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday 9:00am-5:00pm
Norwich Office
Phone: (860) 886-5498
6 Consumers Avenue
Norwich, CT 06360
United States
info@byrnesagency.com
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday 9:00am-5:00pm