It was great to meet with new members Stancold in Bristol recently.

Stacy Horseman, Dan Bartfield explained how Stancold’s services could benefit BFFF members. Stancold has been established for over 75 years and are specialist in food facility fit-out, fire walls/partitions and cold store construction, the health & safety and fire safety aspects of cold stores are often overlooked.

We discussed how many facilities still have cold stores constructed from Polystyrene (EXPS/XPS) panels, these were extensively used in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s within the food industry. These are highly flammable and can lead to rapid fire and smoke spread and the release of toxic fumes. Similarly, some cold stores are fitted with Polyurethane Foam (PUR) panels, these were typically used until the mid-2000’s, while PUR are a little more difficult to ignite than Polystyrene, once ignited they will burn rapidly.

Over the years I have encountered several examples of where electrical sockets and charging points have been mounted or close to these highly flammable combustible panels, with emerging technologies such as Materials Handling Equipment fitted with Lithium-Ion batteries this can make matters much worse.

The solution here is to have your panels assessed by those competent to identify any hidden risk.

Unlike control measures for other hazards such as asbestos (being identified by a survey, marked and managed), the flammability risk of composite insulated panels is often unknown with employers and employees being completely unware of this risk.

Stancold has several accreditations including one from the Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB)- LPS 1500, this is the standard for companies installing fire resisting compartment systems.

It was great to hear that Stancold are happy to work with our members to reduce this risk. In terms of replacing high risk panels, they are able to provide a phased replacement programme over agreed timescales.

To find our more about the services of Stancold, please visit:

https://stancold.co.uk/