Personal Hygiene

Introduction In any food establishment, food handlers are either the first line of defence or the cause for the need for defence against contamination. This is because most types of foods can be contaminated and it is the responsibility of the food handler to ensure the safety of the consumers. This will cover how personal hygiene should be implemented to ensure effective compliance with the current legislation and code of practice. Also covered is how to reduce, prevent, and eliminate contamination and what corrective actions are to be taken in the event of failures in food hygiene.

Personal Hygiene and Regulation (EC) No 852/ 2004
Personal hygiene is making sure that food handlers are clean and know what to do to keep food clean and safe. Every person working in food handling area is to maintain high degree of cleanliness. It is an important requirement to wear suitable, clean and protective clothing where necessary. Protective Clothing is essential for all food handlers, clothing should be clean, washable, light coloured protective clothing, preferably without external pockets. Jumper and shirt sleeves must not protrude from protective clothing. Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 also states that no person suffering from a disease likely to be transmitted through food should be permitted to handle food or enter any food handling area. Infected wounds, skin infections, sores and diarrhoea are some of the diseases that can contaminate food directly or indirectly. Staff should report if any member of their household is suffering from diarrhoea, stomach upset or vomiting.
Regulation (EC) No 852/ 2004 talks about hygiene, training and food safety. High standards of personal hygiene reduce the risk of contamination and help prevent food poisoning. As the hands are always in direct contact with food, they are the main route for transferring food poisoning bacteria. Hands must be kept very clean all the time and hot water and soap must be used. Efficient drying of hands which may be achieved by using disposable towels, hot air dryers or continuous roller towels should be used.
Adults can carry staphylococci in the nose and mouth. Coughs and sneezes can carry droplet infection for a considerable distance. People with bad coughs must not handle open food. Disposable single use paper tissues are preferable than handkerchiefs. Ailments must be reported to the supervisor and a medical clearance to start work may be required.
Hair must be clean and tied up back when handling food and hair nets must be worn at all times. Nails harbour dirt and bacteria. They should be kept short and clean and no nail vanish should be worn. Jewellery can also carry bacteria and should not be worn when handling food. Cut and sores must be covered by waterproof dressing when working in food areas.
Food handlers must be in good health in all aspects from oral hygiene to general fitness. Food handlers who excrete food poisoning must not resume food handling duties without medical clearance.

Management of Personal Hygiene
To establish controls, Personal Hygiene requirements should be compiled first. House Rules covering Personal Hygiene of staff should be listed. These are usually the House Rules already in place. Personal Hygiene Rules are an important component of HACCP based system and must be kept up to date all the time. Controls mean measures to prevent hazards; these include hand washing, appropriate clean clothing, dressings and protecting food.
To manage these controls, a table of Personal Hygiene Rules should be compiled. This table describes the control measures and the critical limits. This also gives a record that helps to monitor frequency on the weekly record.
Below is the table of Personal Hygiene rules which can be used to monitor controls.

Table1.1 Personal Hygiene House Rules | Describe
• Control Measures and Critical Limits
• Monitoring including frequency | Personal Cleanliness | Hands to be washed thoroughly, before starting work, before handling food, after using the toilet, after handling raw food & waste, after every break, after eating & drinking & blowing nose.Hair to be tied back and preferably covered.Food handlers should not spit, sneeze or cough over food.Food handlers should not smoke in food preparation area.Cuts and sores should be covered with high visibility dressings.Jewellery should be kept to a minimum when preparing & handling food. Plain wedding ring and sleeper earrings are acceptable. | Protective Clothing | All staff working in a food preparation area must wear protective clothing which must be kept clean and should be changed and laundered regularly. | Rules on :
• Reporting illness | Food handlers by law must report illness to owner or manager. In particular, they must ensure that they report any skin, nose, throat, and stomach or bowel trouble or if they have infected wounds. Staff should also report if anyone in their household is suffering from diarrhoea, stomach upsets or vomiting. Food handlers suffering from any of the above must be excluded from food handling until fully recovered. | Rules on :
• Exclusion
• Return to Work | Certain infections such as dysentery, E coli 0157and typhoid require formal exclusion and then medical clearance before returning to food handling duties.Staff should not return to work until they have been free of gastro-intestinal symptoms i.e. vomiting/diarrhoea, for 48 hours. Staffs who have been taking anti – diarrhoea medication should not return to work until they have been symptom free for at least 48 hours after stopping the medication. | Monitoring/checking and any other appropriate records used by your business | • Weekly Record |
The table above shows how personal cleaning, protective clothing illnesses and rules of exclusion from work can be monitored. It also lists rules and procedures to be followed to ensure proper personal hygiene practice in a food business.
Once all the rules are completed, their use must be monitored and records kept. This is done by a weekly record. Below is an example of a weekly record.

Table 1.2 Personal Hygiene weekly records

This will reflect whether Personal Hygiene has been followed or not. A list of controls is filled in and the appropriate section is ticked against each one of the controls accordingly.
When a food handler returns to work after an illness, a Return to Work Questionnaire must be completed. This also helps to monitor and verify controls. If a person answers yes to any of the listed symptoms, then they should not be allowed to handle food until they are free from symptoms for 48 hours.
If Personal Hygiene House Rules are not followed, a record of the problem identified must be done and action should be taken to correct it. This information can also be entered in the weekly record as shown below.

Table1.3 Weekly Record

This shows House Rules deviations observed and the corrective actions taken.
Training must be provided to ensure all staff members are aware of all the controls and understand why they are essential in the food environment. It is also required that all records of monitoring and any corrective action is taken and kept for an appropriate period of time to demonstrate that HACCP based system is working effectively.
Personal Hygiene failure
A food handler working without full protective clothing in a burger and pie manufacturing company is responsible for grilling raw beef and poultry burgers. The food handler places the grilled beef and chicken burgers between bread rolls before they are conveyed to the packing machine without washing his hands. The same person slices chicken and beef pieces meant for pies before they are cooked, again he wipes his hands with a cloth towel that he has been using for several times before handling pastry. All this food preparation has been done in one big room. This is a personal hygiene hazard because a person that handles raw meat should not handle any other open foods without washing hands and still in the same clothes. Proper protective clothing should be used to protect the food from cross-contamination.
Meat and poultry are the main sources of Campylobacter, Salmonella and E coli which can easily be transferred to bread rolls, pastry and other foods in this case. These can cause mild to severe diarrhoea to customers and also other symptoms are stomach pains, fever, vomiting or even death.
Washing hands after handling raw meat is essential. Food handlers should not go on to handle other foods before washing hands thoroughly using appropriate hand wash and hot water. Disposable gloves can be used and thrown away after each use.
Hand towels should not be used more than once as they can harbour germs which can spread on hands and food. This means all the food made by this food handler is unsafe for human consumption.

Corrective Action
Immediate Action
The food production has to stop immediately and the food handler responsible should be send to wear appropriate clothing which protects food from hazards. Disposable paper towels should be placed next to the sink and the used cloth towel should be disposed to allow proper hand wash immediately without spreading further germs.
All the food finished food products and the raw materials that have been in contact with the food handler should be disposed into appropriate bins. More staff should be called to help with the cleaning of all the machines, utensils, floors, walls and all staff should be in the right protective clothing. If there is any finished food products from the same room that are ready to be despatched or on their way should be returned immediately for disposal as they are unfit for human consumption. Anything delivered already should be recalled and the customers should be informed.
Long term Action
First of all staff should be trained on food hygiene and general food safety including those with trained before so that they are also reminded of the right practice before any food production resumes. Staff should be taught about the importance of good food hygiene in food production and the implications of not following the right procedures which include legal action against the company or even loss of lives.
Food handlers working on raw meat and poultry should not handle other foods to prevent cross-contamination and the processing rooms for raw meat and poultry and other foods should be made separate to limit possibilities of cross-contamination. More staff should be employed to make sure food handlers should not be allocated any other duties if handling raw meats.
Staff must be inspected before they start their duties on daily basis to make sure they are in the right attire for the type of jobs they do. Enough hand washing facilities should be provided within the factory to make sure food handlers do not have to hold door handles when they move to another room to wash hands. Single use paper towels should be introduced in all washing areas.
After all food handlers have been trained, controls should be put in place to make sure the training has been effective. Once personal hygiene rules are put in place as controls, they will be updated on weekly basis to make sure all the measure put in place are being followed. A list of personal hygiene record is kept and monitored. If personal hygiene rules are not followed, a record of the problem identified must be entered on weekly records and action must be taken to correct it. Action may include retraining or reminding staff on what they are required to do and the importance of it in terms of food safety.
To make sure all staff members are aware of the problem, meetings should be held to inform them of what should be done to make sure the same failures will not occur again. This is important as it gives them the chance to ask questions in areas they need to understand. Routine meetings should help as a reminder on weekly or monthly basis. This gives a better picture on whether they have understood what needs to be done and the results of not following the right procedures including loss of business due to negligence. Information posters will be placed on walls around the factory to remind staff members on what procedures they need to follow. These should also be placed in problematic areas to make sure food handlers in those areas are aware of the food safety measures and the dangers of not complying.
Conclusion
It is essential to practice good food hygiene to prevent food borne illnesses, deaths and lawsuits against the company. Food handlers should be in good health in all aspects. Any food handlers suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting or food borne infection must not handle food. All food handlers must receive the appropriate food hygiene education to make sure they are aware of the implications and also that they have knowledge to break the chain of events resulting in outbreaks of food poisoning. Cooked foods and raw foods must be kept separate at all times. Certain foods like poultry will always contain bacteria and poor handling of these foods results in cross-contamination.
There is need to have rules and procedures in place to ensure that Personal Hygiene is effectively managed. Weekly personal Hygiene records should be maintained and checked to make sure set rules are being followed. Negligence of these food procedures may result in loss of life, jobs and business.