Personal Hygiene
Staff offer one of the first impressions your customers will have of your establishment and as such it is essential that your staff are professional and tidy with good personal hygiene. On top of this, your food staff will need to ensure they have a high level of personal hygiene in order to be compliant with the law and to avoid food poisoning and contamination.
Any person, who works in or in connection with a food business where food is processed, prepared, stored distributed or offered for sale or supply is considered to be a Food Worker. This includes the licensed trade.
The following provides a back to basics look at ensuring a high level of personal hygiene.
Washing hands
Hands should be washed on a regular basis including before starting work. In particular hands should be washed before the handling of food, after visiting the toilet, after handling raw foods, after sneezing, coughing or blowing the nose or touching eyes, nose, face, hair and cuts. Hands should also be washed after smoking and coffee and lunch breaks, after cleaning duties, after handling money or waste and after taking a delivery.
Unhygienic Practices
Bad hygienic habits should be avoided to avoid food poisoning and contamination. In particular staff should NEVER cough or sneeze over food or drink, nails should not be bitten while working, finger tasting should be strictly prohibited and fingers should never be wet in order to aid the opening of bags.
It is imperative that food workers to not have long nails do not wear nail varnish, do not wear watches or jewellery while working or wear strong perfume and aftershave.
Illness
Managers should be made aware of staff suffering from infectious illness such as vomiting, diarrhoea, skin infections such as boils, septic cuts or styes, and hepatitis.
Clothing
Clean and protective clothing should be worn at all times by any food workers in order to prevent food from becoming contaminated.
As well as the above measures ensure that all food handlers are supervised and trained in food hygiene principles and practices. Contact your local health authority for details of hygiene courses.
I ______(Manager/Supervisor) hereby certify that ______(Employee Name) has read and understood the above principles. Date: ______