Europe has strong rules to protect the safety at the work place; most countries have regulatory requirements in place to protect the health and safety of employees. In every working environment employers are responsible for the protection of the health of their employees.
Bakers and plant employees are, due to the nature of their work, repeatedly exposed to bakery ingredients, some of which can cause allergies when exposure is not well controlled. Although the workforce in the bakery industry is comprised of a large variety of players- from small craft bakers to larger industrial bakeries - Fedima wants to support the industry by providing guidance on occupational health and safety.
For this reason Fedima works on developing best practices in the industry. An example is the guidance document on the safe handling of enzymes, which provides steps that should be taken to mitigate the risks in all sectors of the baking industry; from milling and bakery ingredient production, to craft and industrial bakeries. Furthermore, Fedima enables the performance of studies to improve technologies, such as dust measurement methods, and gathering of knowledge about potential hazards. This is often done in partnership with other organisations.
We continue to explore other possible areas where we could play an active role in guaranteeing the highest level of workers’ safety.
FEDIMA & AMFEP are hosting a series of webinars on the Safe Handling of Enzymes in the Bakery Sector: click here for more information
