Personal hygiene is of critical importance to the production of safe food. It doesn’t matter if you have the best constructed premises, if the food handler sneezes on the finished product it is almost certain the food will be deemed unsafe.
As an auditor, I thought I had pretty well seen it all but I have unfortunately been proven wrong. During a recent site inspection I happened to observe a personal habit which I hope I never witness again. It was nose picking – not just briefly but an extended session followed by “snotting” into the bare hands. A return to food handling duties then occurred without washing hands. The QA management who witnessed this event were absolutely horrified along with myself.
Food law and customer standards incorporate the requirements for food handler health and hygiene. It is very specific as to food handler requirements for actions including hand washing, infectious diseases, sneezing, eating and drinking around food, smoking and the potential for foreign matter to come from the food handler ending up in the food.
This really is not rocket science…..just a very basic requirement not to contaminate the food and make it unsafe. For some people however, it is apparently not so basic. As personal hygiene can be habitual, learned behavior may be very hard for QA Managers to control. If it is not drummed into you at a very young age, unacceptable food hygiene behavior may be viewed as “normal” for some. Hand washing is definitely a great example of this. Next time you visit a public toilet, note the hand washing of the people around you.
To help food handlers understand their personal hygiene obligations check the food safety legislation that applies to your county. For a general overview, The Food Training Institute has prepared the following webseminar on food handler requirements.
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