Workplace safety stories usually get attention after something goes wrong. An injury happens, OSHA gets involved, or a piece of equipment turns out to be more dangerous than anyone realized.
So it was nice to come across a bakery safety story about a company being recognized for what it got right.
OSHA recently highlighted Better Batter Gluten Free Flour, a Pennsylvania producer of allergy-friendly flour blends and baking mixes, after the company worked with the state’s OSHA On-Site Consultation Program to strengthen its workplace safety program. In 2026, Better Batter earned SHARP status for the first time, OSHA recognition reserved for small and midsize businesses with strong safety and health programs.
What’s interesting about the story isn’t one big safety initiative. It’s how practical the changes were.
Moving Safety Beyond the Checklist
According to OSHA, Better Batter established a formal safety committee that gives employees at different levels a voice in workplace safety. It also added safety training to new-hire orientation, began conducting regular self-audits and developed a more comprehensive hazard communication program. Taken together, those fairly simple changes reshaped how safety was handled day to day.
OSHA describes the shift as moving safety from a checklist to an ongoing conversation. Employees were encouraged to identify hazards as they saw them and report near misses before they became injuries. That matters because the people doing the work are often the first ones to notice when something isn’t quite right.
The New-Hire Piece Is Especially Important
Adding safety to new-hire orientation may be one of the simplest ideas in Better Batter’s approach, but it’s also one of the most useful. New employees are learning a lot at once. They’re figuring out equipment, production routines, cleaning procedures, who does what and how to keep up with the pace of the operation. That’s also when habits start forming.
If machine safety, chemical handling, reporting procedures and other expectations are part of the conversation from the beginning, safety becomes part of how the job is done rather than something added later. It also gives employees an important piece of information early: if you see something that doesn’t look right, speak up.
The OSHA Program Many Businesses Don’t Know About
Better Batter made these changes with help from OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program, a no-cost, confidential service for small and midsize businesses that want help improving workplace safety. The program is separate from OSHA enforcement, so businesses can bring in a consultant to help identify hazards, understand OSHA requirements and strengthen their safety program without the visit resulting in citations or penalties.
Companies that participate do agree to correct any serious hazards that are identified. For a smaller business that knows it could use some outside safety expertise but may not have a dedicated safety professional on staff, it can be a useful resource to know about.
The Bigger Lesson for Bakeries
Commercial bakeries have plenty of common workplace hazards, including machinery, repetitive motion, lifting, hot surfaces, slips and falls, cleaning chemicals and flour dust. But managing those risks doesn’t always begin with a major capital investment.
Sometimes it starts with involving employees, looking at the workplace regularly, talking about near misses and making sure a new employee learns how to work safely at the same time they learn how to do the job.
Better Batter’s story shows how effective a safety program can be when it lives in the day-to-day operationI.
If you’d like to see whether the program could help your business, you can find your state’s On-Site Consultation office through OSHA's Consultation Directory.