Few people think of icing sugar or custard powder as a hazard. Yet history shows that, given the right conditions, everyday food ingredients can ignite and explode with the same destructive force as industrial chemicals.
When dust turns dangerous
Some of the most devastating industrial explosions on record began not with a gas leak or chemical spill, but with a cloud of fine dust suspended in air. In 2008, an explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Georgia, USA claimed 14 lives. Three decades earlier, in 1979, a blast tore through the Roland Mill in Bremen, Germany, also killing 14 employees. And in 1981, an explosion at the Bird's Custard factory in Oxfordshire, UK caused no fatalities but left nine people injured.
Different countries, different decades, different ingredients - yet each incident shares the same root cause: fine combustible dust, the right concentration in the air, and an ignition source.
Measuring the risk: the GESTIS-DUST-EX database
To understand and prevent these hazards, safety professionals can turn to the GESTIS-DUST-EX database, which catalogues the combustion and explosion characteristics of more than 7,000 dust samples from virtually every industrial sector. This data forms the basis for the safe handling of combustible dusts and for planning preventive and protective measures in a diverse variety of production facilities.
At the heart of the database is an internationally used classification system that ranks dust combustibility by St class, based on a value called Kst - a measure of how violently a dust cloud can explode:
- St 1 – Kst 1–200 bar·m/s - weak to moderate explosion
- St 2 – Kst 201–300 bar·m/s - strong explosion
- St 3 – Kst above 300 bar·m/s - very strong explosion
Seven ingredients, one hidden hazard
According to GESTIS-DUST-EX database, several everyday food ingredients can reach St 2 or higher in dust form, making them highly combustible. These include:
- Maize/corn starch
- Wheat starch
- Dextrose/glucose
- Powdered sugar
- Flour
- Milk powder
- Cinnamon
These aren't exotic industrial chemicals - they're staple ingredients found in bakeries, mills, and food processing plants up and down the country, which is exactly why the risk can be underestimated.
Why the Kst value matters for compliance
The Safety Data Sheet (SDS) provided by an ingredient manufacturer should state the Kst value for that material. This isn't just a technical footnote - it's essential information that must be shared with any equipment supplier tasked with meeting DSEAR regulations and complying with the ATEX Directive. Without it, a business risks specifying extraction or filtration equipment that simply isn't rated for the explosion hazard actually present on site.
For further guidance on preventing dust explosions in food manufacturing, visit the HSE website.
Filtermist provides a wide variety of dust collectors and venting filters used in food production facilities throughout the UK, which can all be supplied to conform with DSEAR and COSHH Regulations. Our contracts team also specifies, designs, installs, and commissions large scale centralised LEV extraction systems capable of collecting dust-laden air from multiple pick-up points in food processing plants. The air is filtered, dust collected and clean air is exhausted to atmosphere.
Our dust experts would be happy to discuss any extraction requirements you may have.
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