Worker burns face in ‘powder explosion’ at factory
Three fire engines and an ambulance were called to the blast at the factory owned by Adams Foods Ingredients (AFI) in Leek, Staffordshire, at about 8am.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service said firefighters found that a hopper, which is used for storage, was giving off heat.
“It was called in as a suspected powder explosion in the factory,” a spokeswoman said. “The cause is under investigation.”
She said the company is carrying out an internal investigation and will pass its findings on to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
‘Minor explosion’
A spokesman at West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed that a man with facial burns was taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital.
He said: “It was reported as some form of minor explosion.”
AFI confirmed that a member of staff working on the production line had received minor injuries.
“He was taken to hospital as a precaution and has now been discharged,” a spokesman said. “Emergency services were called and the incident is now fully under control with all other production lines operating as normal.”
AFI produces a range of dairy ingredients such as cheese flavours, whey protein and lactose, and technical ingredients, such as texturisers, emulsifiers and stabilisers, for various food and drink categories.
In 2013 two Premier Foods’s workers were taken to hospital after an explosion ripped through an oven at its Mothers Pride bakery in Glasgow.
A year earlier, a worker was injured during another explosion when an oil storage tank was decommissioned at Northern Foods’s Fox’s Biscuits factory in West Yorkshire.
