Food safety: introduction to personal hygiene

Hand-washing equipment

The company must provide an adequate number of washbasins at suitable locations designated for hand-washing.

Washbasins need to have a supply of hot and cold running water (or suitably temperature controlled) of appropriate microbiological and chemical quality.

A sufficient quantity of appropriate materials for cleaning hands needs to be available at all times. These materials should be appropriate and suitable for use in a food preparation area: unscented soaps or proprietary cleansers, for example.

You need to provide for the hygienic drying of hands. Any materials used for hand- drying must be disposed of without risk of contamination to food products.

The facilities for washing and preparation of food need to be separate from the hand-washing facilities and must not be used for hand-washing.

Methodology

Each food handler should use the following method to ensure hands are appropriately clean.

1. Wet hands with warm running water and apply liquid soap or use a clean soap bar.
2. Rub hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds, giving special attention to the backs of the hands, wrists, between the fingers, and under the fingernails.
3. Rinse hands well while leaving the water running.
4. Dry hands with a clean single-use disposable towel or air drier.
5. Where a disposable towel is used, dispose of it without risk of contamination to the food products.
6. When turning off the water (if it is not automatically done), use dry hands or a clean disposable towel.

Hand-washing verification

Since hand-washing is critically important for the microbiological safety of food, the person responsible for food safety within the factory should monitor this activity carefully.

You must watch your employees’ hand-washing activities on a fairly regular but non-predetermined basis to assess their compliance with the defined requirements. You may also have to do occasional visual checks on the cleanliness of hands.

Checks should be carried out and focused on risk periods (after toilet visits) and shift changes.

Personal cleanliness

Every food handler must practice good personal cleanliness in order to minimize the risk of product contamination, be it physical, chemical, or microbiological.

In addition to hand-washing practices, there are a number of other matters that are important to ensure consumer safety.

• You should wear protective clothing.
• You should be award of any ways in which injuries might occur.
• You should not wear jewelry, and you should be aware of where you have placed personal belongings.

Protective clothing

Every food handler should wear protective clothing designed to protect the product from contamination.

Even then, protective clothing, if not carefully assessed beforehand, can itself be a source of product contamination. Buttons fibers, or dirt may fall into or contaminate the product. Therefore, food handlers must wear clean, undamaged protective clothing. Domestic clothing must not be worn.

Hair also poses a major contamination risk. To prevent this risk, hair must be fully covered by suitable head coverings (hairnets/ hats), or in the case of facial hair, beard nets or snoods. Foot wear must be clean, free from debris, and designed in a way that does not pose any risk to the product.