Flour Handling SWMS
Bulk flour handling upstream of the bakery — receiving, storing, weighing, transferring, silo blow-off, bag tipping. Addresses the new 0.5 mg/m³ WEL (1 December 2026), inhalable flour dust, baker's asthma prevention, and combustible-dust deflagration controls.
SWMS variants reference your state’s WHS legislation. Instant download after payment.
Bulk flour handling operations upstream of bakery production lines expose workers to inhalable flour dust, a recognised respiratory sensitiser and a Class St1 combustible dust capable of deflagration in confined volumes. Activities covered include tanker discharge to silos, silo blow-off and venting, mechanical and pneumatic transfer, weighing, and manual bag tipping into hoppers. Under WHS Regulation 2025 Part 7.1, flour is a hazardous chemical requiring a documented risk assessment, exposure monitoring against the new 0.5 mg/m³ inhalable workplace exposure limit effective 1 December 2026, and atmospheric control. Silo internal cleaning and inspection additionally engage Part 4.3 confined space duties. A Safe Work Method Statement is mandatory because the work is High Risk Construction Work-equivalent food-sector hazardous chemical work triggering Schedule 1 Category 10, and because baker's asthma is a notifiable occupational disease under Part 3 incident notification provisions.
Hazards identified
7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.
Sensitisation leading to baker's asthma, occupational rhinitis, permanent IgE-mediated respiratory impairment and notifiable disease reporting
Primary explosion followed by secondary dust-layer ignition causing fatal burns, structural collapse and catastrophic plant loss
Asphyxiation, burial under flowing flour, and fatal entrapment within minutes of unsupervised entry
Silo roof rupture, ejection of filter housings, fatal struck-by injuries to ground personnel and product contamination
Lumbar disc injury, shoulder impingement, cumulative musculoskeletal disorders triggering workers compensation claims
Ignition source for combustible dust cloud, initiating deflagration within ducting and downstream receivers
Same-level falls causing fractures, plus secondary dust-layer fuel load increasing explosion propagation risk
Control measures
Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.
- 1Elimination — Replace manual bag tipping with sealed bulk silo delivery and enclosed pneumatic transfer to eliminate operator exposure to airborne flour dust at the source.
- 2Elimination — Prohibit silo internal entry by specifying external silo cleaning systems, rotary bin dischargers and air cannons that clear bridging without confined space entry.
- 3Substitution — Where additive dusts are required, substitute fine powders with agglomerated, low-dusting or liquid-slurry equivalents reducing inhalable fraction generated during charging.
- 4Engineering — Install LEV capture hoods over bag-tip stations achieving 1.0 m/s face velocity, ducted to ATEX-rated cartridge filters with explosion venting per AS/NZS 60079.10.2.
- 5Engineering — Fit silo pressure/vacuum relief valves rated 0.35 bar, rotary airlock isolation, earthing/bonding straps and explosion isolation valves on inlet ducts per HB 239.
- 6Engineering — Provide continuous inhalable dust monitoring with real-time photometric sensors alarmed at 0.4 mg/m³ to give pre-WEL warning under WHS Reg 2025 cl 50.
- 7Administrative — Implement permit-to-work for silo entry covering atmospheric testing, isolation of fill lines, top-man standby and tripod rescue, reviewed each shift by the supervisor.
- 8Administrative — Schedule annual health surveillance including spirometry and specific IgE testing for all flour-exposed workers, with results reviewed by an occupational physician.
- 9Administrative — Conduct documented pre-start briefings using this SWMS, restrict tanker discharge to trained operators and verify silo ullage before connection.
- 10PPE — Issue P2 respirators (fit-tested annually to AS/NZS 1715), antistatic conductive footwear, sealed eye protection and disposable Type 5 coveralls during bag tipping and cleaning tasks.
Applicable Codes of Practice
Establishes the WEL compliance, register, risk assessment and air monitoring duties for flour as a hazardous chemical under WHS Reg Part 7.1.
Mandates hazardous-area zoning (Zone 20/21/22) around silos, filters and tipping points, dictating equipment selection and ignition-source control.
Triggers the permit, atmospheric testing, isolation, standby person and rescue plan duties for any silo internal entry under WHS Reg Part 4.3.
Requires risk assessment and control of repetitive 25 kg sack handling at tipping stations, including mechanical aids and rotation schedules.
High-Risk Construction Work triggered
Flour is a respiratory sensitiser with a scheduled WEL and a Class St1 combustible dust, meeting the hazardous chemical and atmospheric-hazard criteria of Schedule 1 Category 10.
PCBUs must prepare, consult workers on, and retain this SWMS for two years (or until any incident investigation closes); penalties are substantial and indexed, with the current maximum following the prevailing WHS schedule.
Who this is for
- →Operations managers at industrial bakeries and flour mills
- →Maintenance fitters servicing silos and pneumatic conveying
- →Bulk tanker drivers discharging flour to site silos
- →WHS coordinators in food manufacturing facilities
What you receive
- ✓Editable DOCX template — Microsoft Word compatible
- ✓State-specific WHS legislation schedule (NSW/VIC/QLD/SA/WA/TAS/NT/ACT)
- ✓Hazard register with risk ratings + hierarchy-of-control mapping
- ✓Worker sign-on register, pre-start checklist, and incident escalation flow
Worked example
At a mid-sized commercial bakery preparing for a 6 am tanker discharge to Silo 3, the shift supervisor opens this SWMS at the pre-start brief with the receiving operator and the tanker driver. Working through the hazard register, the operator identifies that the silo high-level alarm was intermittent the previous shift, so the team flags pneumatic over-pressurisation as the live risk and selects the engineering control requiring confirmed ullage measurement and pressure-relief valve verification before coupling. The driver signs onto the SWMS, confirms his earthing strap and antistatic footwear, and the supervisor witnesses the bonding connection to the silo earth point. During discharge, the real-time dust monitor near the filter vent alarms at 0.42 mg/m³, below the WEL but above the pre-alarm threshold built into the administrative control. Following the SWMS escalation step, the operator throttles the blower, dons a fit-tested P2 respirator and isolates the adjacent bag-tip station until readings drop. Post-discharge, the supervisor records the alarm event in the exposure log, schedules a filter inspection, and updates the SWMS dynamic risk section so the next shift inherits the control change. The document is re-signed by all attending workers and filed against the batch record for the two-year retention period.
Related legislation
- WHS Act 2011 (model)
- WHS Regulation 2025
- Combustible Dust CoP; AS/NZS 4024 — Safety of machinery