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Maintain personal hygiene: Content guide

Contents Overview 2 Key terms 2 Follow the laws related to personal hygiene 2 Workplace hygiene and the law 2 Maintain personal hygiene practices 3 Personal hygiene rules 3 Gloves 6 Wear the correct clothing and footwear in food areas 6 What to wear in a food preparation area 7 Report health conditions and illness 8 Summary 9 Sample answers to 'My workplace' questions 10

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Overview Maintaining personal hygiene in the workplace is all about your personal presentation and cleanliness, your clothing and footwear, and what to do if you are ill or have a health condition. All these aspects of personal hygiene impact on the quality and safety of the food and service you provide to your customers. Poor personal hygiene can also affect the health of your work colleagues. So there are many important reasons why personal hygiene standards must be in place and followed by all staff. This Content guide will help you:  follow the laws relating to personal hygiene  maintain personal hygiene  wear correct clothing and footwear  report health conditions and illnesses.

Key terms You can look up these key terms in the online Knowledge base.

Clothing and footwear in food areas

Grooming

Handwashing

Health conditions and illness

Personal habits

Personal hygiene rules

Use of gloves

Follow the laws related to personal hygiene

Workplace hygiene and the law Customers rely on food staff to provide food that is safe to eat and is prepared and served in a clean environment. Following workplace hygiene

Food Safety Toolbox: Maintain personal hygiene— Content guide © ANTA 2004 Page 2 of 10 To save this Content guide to your computer – pull down the File menu and choose Save As … and give it a file name of your choice rules will ensure clean staff, a clean environment and safe, well prepared food that will encourage customers to return. When you follow workplace hygiene rules, you will be complying with food laws. These laws place a great responsibility on anyone who is handling food in a food business. They are there to ensure food remains ‘safe and suitable’ for your customers to eat. Throughout the reading notes relevant legislation will be highlighted from the Food Standards Code — Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety Practices and General Requirements.

Maintain personal hygiene practices Personal hygiene rules are there to ensure that you do not transfer bacteria and dirt from yourself to food. You must follow good personal hygiene rules when you are working in a food area. The requirement under Food Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety Practices and General Requirements is for food handlers to, ‘take all practicable measures to ensure his or her body, anything from his or her body, and anything he or she is wearing, does not contaminate food or surfaces likely to come into contact with food’.

Personal hygiene rules

Grooming It is very important for you to present yourself at work well groomed, as poor grooming can contaminate food. Good grooming should be part of your daily routine. To be well groomed, you should:  shower or bath daily and use deodorant  make sure your hair is clean and securely tied back when long. Securely tied back means more than a ponytail — hair should be plaited or up in a bun. For kitchen staff, hair should be contained in a hat and/or a hair net or both  do not wear perfumes and after shaves if you are handling food  keep fingernails short and clean. Artificial nails must not be worn and nails must be free of nail polish — even clear nail polish.

My workplace

1. What personal hygiene rules are in place in your workplace to ensure that food is not contaminated?

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Personal habits Bad personal habits can be a major cause of food contamination, so you must be careful to avoid any of the following when handling food:  if you touch your mouth, nose, ears, eyes, then wash your hands. Your body is a major source of micro-organisms  wear limited jewellery and do not touch jewellery — earrings, nose and tongue rings all carry bacteria. Fiddling with them is the same as touching your mouth, nose and ears  if you smoke, wash your hands each time you finish. Smoking allows bacteria from saliva to be transferred to your hands. When staff do not wash their hands, this bacteria can be passed to the customer or other staff on food, linen and utensils  do not place bags or knife boxes on food preparation areas as they can cause bacteria to be transferred to food surfaces  do not sit, lean or stand on bench tops or tables  do not eat in food preparation and service areas — except to test food for quality  do not place your hands on ready to eat food — use tongs or other serving utensils.

Hand washing When food handlers do not wash their hands after going to the toilet, they can carry a common food poisoning bacteria on their hands and this can be passed on to anyone eating the food they prepare. Specific hand washing requirements for food handlers are stated in Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety and General Requirements [15(2)–(4)].

The law states that you must wash your hands: Before  starting work  handling food or packaging  handling equipment, linen or utensils  entering another work area  before filling straw and napkin dispensers.

Food Safety Toolbox: Maintain personal hygiene— Content guide © ANTA 2004 Page 4 of 10 To save this Content guide to your computer – pull down the File menu and choose Save As … and give it a file name of your choice The law states that you must wash your hands: After:  going to the toilet  meal or tea breaks  smoking  cleaning and handling chemicals  handling garbage  coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose  touching your body or jewellery, eg scratching your head, earring, etc  touching sores, rashes, cuts or band-aids  touching the floor or machinery parts  handling dirty linen  removing gloves — single-use or rubber gloves. How to wash your hands 1. Remove any jewellery and roll back your sleeves. 2. Turn on tap (use the hand basin only). o 3. Wet hands with warm water (45 C). 4. Apply liquid soap. 5. Lather and rub using warm water for at least 20 seconds: clean each nail using your nails rather than a nailbrush clean between each finger clean both front and backs of hands all the way to the wrist. 6. Rinse off soap, using warm running water, fingers pointing downward. 7. Dry hands well using a disposable paper towel. 8. AVOID RECONTAMINATION by turning off the tap without your hands touching the tap, eg use an elbow tap or use a paper towel. Following these rules for hand washing will also assist you to maintain your own health as well as that of your customers. Remember — hand basins are for HANDS — not for anything else. If you do not have what you need for hand washing make sure you report it to your supervisor or manager. Report  When there is no paper towel or liquid soap.  When there is no water.  If the sink does not drain.  If the sink is dirty.

Food Safety Toolbox: Maintain personal hygiene— Content guide © ANTA 2004 Page 5 of 10 To save this Content guide to your computer – pull down the File menu and choose Save As … and give it a file name of your choice  If the sink shows signs that it has been used for purposes other than hand washing.  When glove supplies are running low.  If your glove size is not available.  If you develop a rash after wearing gloves.

Gloves Gloves — single-use and washing up — are a great source of contamination when they are not used properly. Rules for single use gloves  WASH AND DRY hands before and after using gloves.  DISCARD gloves when they become soiled.  CHANGE gloves whenever hands would normally be washed.  CHANGE gloves after picking anything up off the floor.  DISCARD gloves when leaving the work area for ANY reason.  WHEN RETURNING to the work preparation area, wash hands and use a new pair of gloves.  DO NOT REMOVE gloves near food.  DO NOT REUSE GLOVES — throw them away immediately after removing them.  STORE NEW GLOVES where they won’t be contaminated in the work area.

My workplace 2. What could you do in your workplace when gloves are unavailable or impractical?

Answer:

Wear the correct clothing and footwear in food areas

Food Safety Toolbox: Maintain personal hygiene— Content guide © ANTA 2004 Page 6 of 10 To save this Content guide to your computer – pull down the File menu and choose Save As … and give it a file name of your choice What to wear in a food preparation area Uniforms and protective clothing such as aprons and shoes can be a great source of contamination. How we launder, store, transport and wear our uniforms is important. Controlling contamination in your workplace is your responsibility.

Food handlers are obliged under Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety and General Requirements to prevent contamination from anything on his or her body. There is an additional requirement for clothing to be suitably clean at paragraph 15(1)(c).

To prevent contamination the following general rules apply:  wear a clean uniform (and apron where required) each shift. Dirt and food on dirty clothes provides food for the growth of micro-organisms  remove your apron before going to the toilet, having a break or even having a cigarette  change aprons if you believe you have contaminated your apron, eg after cleaning in toilet areas before working in food preparation and service areas or if you have been handling contaminated linen  clean shoes daily  do not leave damp and dirty clothes in lockers overnight as this will provide ideal conditions for bacterial growth  do not place items such as dirty tissues or food in pockets, as bacteria on these can multiply quickly and be transferred to your hands when you put your hands in your pockets  do not place small items in pockets above the waist — this removes the chance of these items accidentally falling into the food  do not place additional gloves in your pockets for later use  do not dry your hands, benches, or equipment like knives on your uniform or apron  do not wear any jewellery when working with food or food service  visitors to kitchen areas (such as delivery drivers, repair men and staff from other areas) should be dressed appropriately when in the kitchen, wearing head coverings and protective clothing like a lab coat.

My workplace 3. What protective clothing is required in your workplace in the food handling area?

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Report health conditions and illness Staff coughing and sneezing in food areas does not display a professional image! Even worse, it can contaminate food or service utensils. Would you want to eat in an establishment with obviously sick staff? Equally, would you be happy if a customer coughed and spluttered all over you?

Food handlers have an added legal responsibility under Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety and General Requirements [paragraph 14(1)–(3)] not to work with certain illnesses and conditions.

Following an illness, you may be required to provide a medical certificate stating you are clear to return to work, you are no longer a health hazard and you are once again safe to work with food. Report all illness to your employer — even when you become unwell during your shift. Again, this is a legal requirement. Food handlers must tell their supervisor if they think they have contaminated food. The conditions that prevent you working with food are:  diarrhoea  vomiting  fever  sore throat and fever  jaundice  Hepatitis A  food poisoning  infected cuts, sores or boils  discharge from the ear, nose or eye due to an infection or an allergy. To ensure you do not contaminate other people, food, linen or equipment you must follow these general rules:  do not sneeze or cough over food or food contact surfaces  completely cover all cuts, skin sores and boils using a waterproof covering and use a disposable glove when handling food or food contact surfaces  do not touch discharge from the ear, nose or eye and take appropriate medication to dry up the discharge

Food Safety Toolbox: Maintain personal hygiene— Content guide © ANTA 2004 Page 8 of 10 To save this Content guide to your computer – pull down the File menu and choose Save As … and give it a file name of your choice  use tissues as required and thoroughly wash and dry hands after use. If you have a constantly running nose or other discharge that is not controlled then you should not handle food or food contact surfaces.

My workplace 4. What happens in your workplace when people report that they are unwell at work?

Answer:

Summary We’ve looked at rules and procedures to follow in the workplace with regard to three aspects of personal hygiene:  personal hygiene practices  correct clothing and footwear  health conditions and illnesses. Personal hygiene practices include being clean and grooming yourself appropriately for work. Personal habits also need to be kept in check when working in and around food preparation and service areas. We looked at a detailed procedure for how to wash your hands and situations where the law states you must wash your hands (if you are a food handler). We also looked at clothing and footwear rules covering wearing, using and storing uniforms and protective clothing. These can be a great source of contamination if the rules aren’t followed. There are certain health conditions that prevent you, by law, from working with food. In this situation, you would not be expected to come to work, although you may be asked to supply a medical certificate to your supervisor. If you have a minor illness or injury you can take measures to control any potential risks from your illness.

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Sample answers to 'My workplace' questions 1 In my café the manager Kristi always has spare bands to tie back our hair and extra hair nets and disposable caps for the times we might forget them. It is also great that they have just put a shower in the change room, so that if we walk to work or ride our bikes we can now have a cool shower and when we start our shift we are fresh. I suggested to them the other day to put some spray-on deodorant in there for us to use. 2 In our workplace when gloves are not available I make sure that before I handle food, I have washed my hands in the hand basin with warm water, liquid soap and, of course, remembered to use the nail brush they leave for us. After rinsing my hands, I use a paper towel to dry my cleaned hands. Once my hands are cleaned I try where possible to use clean tongs and a spoon to handle the food, so that I minimise the contact with the food being prepared. 3 Answer: I work in a child care kitchen so the type of protective clothing I wear when I work is a clean chef’s uniform and apron, black clean closed-in shoes with cotton socks and a chef’s paper hat. I make sure my hair, which is long, is always put up in a bun so there is no danger of it been caught in equipment. 4 I work in a hospital kitchen so it is really important to minimise contamination to food. When we get sick we need to tell the boss so that we do not contaminate the food. We then need to bring a doctor’s certificate with us when we come back to work, which clearly states what the sickness was and that we are now clear to be back at work. The certificate must also state that we are no longer a hazard to the food that we prepare; nor are we a hazard to our staff or the patients we serve.