This presentation is from the course Personal Hygiene of the FAO

Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) Toolbox.

Readers are encouraged to visit the online resource for a full

learning experience.

Personal Hygiene in Food

Production

Personal Hygiene in Food Production: Presentation

Objectives

The objectives of the presentation are:

– To provide an overview of the topic “Personal Hygiene in

Food Production” as covered in the FAO GHP Toolbox.

– To make trainers aware of how food handlers may

contaminate food.

– To enable trainers to identify potentially hazardous

contamination paths in the industries that they support.

– To enable trainers to guide food industries to improve the

management of personal hygiene including development of

relevant GMP documents.

– To provide trainers with information resources to facilitate the

preparation of training sessions on personal hygiene.

Personal Hygiene: Presentation Outline

1. Food handlers as a key element in the contamination paths of food

2. Behaviour patterns and facilities that improve food safety

3. Managing personal hygiene

Without personal hygiene there is no food safety

Foodborne illness outbreaks have been linked to food

contaminated by food handlers.

Healthy humans are covered with bacteria. Certain resident

bacteria are part of the natural skin flora. In addition,

transient microorganisms reside for a short time on the skin

after the skin has come into contact with contaminated

surfaces or objects.

Both transient and resident microorganisms can be

transferred by humans to food and food production

utensils.

A healthy human is covered with microorganisms

on hair (incl. beards

and mustaches)

in the nose

in the mouth

on the skin

under the nails

The human gastro-intestinal tract excretes microorganisms

1 kg

excretion

– The adult gastro-intestinal tract contains over 1kg of gut bacteria.

– Humans excrete fecal bacteria with every defecation.

– Gut bacteria are considered healthy and necessary for digestion but some of them are potentially pathogenic.

Ill people shed pathogenic microorganisms

– People shed pathogenic bacteria and viruses before they have major symptoms of illness.

– Food workers can become permanent carries of pathogens and yet exhibit no signs of illness. A known example are Salmonella carriers.

– Ill people and permanent carriers are a major threat to food safety.

time

illness

ends

pathogens continue to be shed!shedding starts

Wounds shed pathogenic microorganisms

– Open wounds can shed high amounts of bacteria and the shedding will

continue until the wound is healed.

– A person with an open wound must not handle food. Wounds must be

bandaged to ensure that food are not contaminated.

wound healed

time

Only minute amounts of certain pathogens are

necessary to cause infections

Campylobacter jejuni and Hepatitis A are two examples of pathogens that are infective in minute doses.

Infections can therefore occur easily when just one food handler does not observe hand hygiene rules.

Even if someone seems to have clean hands they might be infecting the food they are preparing.

Campylobacter jejuni on agar medium

Both direct and indirect routes of contamination exist

direct

Direct contamination involves

transfer of microorganisms from

people to food through direct

physical contact.

indirect

Indirect contamination is possible

by various pathways. In the above

image the knife and the board

might have been in contact with

raw poultry harbouring

Campylobacter and would then

contaminate the tomato.

The fecal-oral route is the primary route of infection for

foodborne microorganisms

The fecal-oral route of contamination refers to contaminations where the primary source of contamination is human or animal feces.

Due to unhygienic practices the contamination is spread to fingers, into water or comes into contact with pests.

The infections then can quickly spread to everyday objects, foods, and utensils.

At the last stage the contaminant is ingested by a person.

The routes the contamination can take are shown on the next slide.

The contamination paths of the fecal-oral route are complex

Personal Hygiene: Presentation Outline

1. Food handlers as a key element in the contamination paths of food

2. Behaviour patterns and facilities that improve food safety

3. Managing personal hygiene

Washing hands is the most important food poisoning

prevention

Washing hands the right way

only requires three elements:

– running water,

– soap, and

– something to dry hands

with.

Careful washing includes

scrubbing palms, back of

hands, between fingers,

under nails.

The correct washing of hands

takes time!

Step 1 Step 2

Step 3 Step 4

Hands need to be washed regularly

immediately

• before working with food

• after using toilet

• after handling rubbish/waste

• after smoking, coughing, sneezing,

using tissue, eating, drinking, smoking

• after touching hair or scalp or mouth

If hands are unclean, sanitizers are not effective. Sanitizers

do not replace hand washing for food operators!

Gloves are not cleaner than hands

change gloves as often as you should wash your hands!

A special dress code is required for EVERYONE who

enters a food-handling area

cover hair

cover beards

no jewelry

clean protective clothingclean shoes

EVERYONE:

food handlers

visitors

management

contractors

auditors

Hairnets and coats for visitors must be available at the

entrance to production areas

cupboard with

hairnets and coats

If you want

personnel to wear

hairnets and visitors

to comply with your

hygiene dress-code

you need to have

coats and hairnets

available at relevant

entries to

production areas.

Depicted is a layout

of a food producing

factory with hairnets

and coats correctly

provided on the way

in to the processing

area.

Forbidden behaviour in a food-handling environment

No sneezing into food. No eating,

spitting, smoking, chewing gum or

tobacco near open food.

Personal items such as jewels,

watches, radios and telephones

are a source of contamination.

They do not belong in areas of

higher hygiene.

Personal hygiene can only ever be as good as the

provided facilities

dirty facilities will

lead to lower levels

of hygiene

clean facilities

improve hygiene

behaviour

Changing rooms, toilets and hand-washing facilities

must be provided and kept clean

Without adequate

facilities personnel

will not implement

recommended

levels of personal

hygiene.

Depicted is a

layout of a food

producing factory

with adequate

facilities that are

correctly

positioned.

HW

Office/Canteen

Office/Visitors

Production Bottling

4°C

-18°C

Water-Prep.Washing

2 toilets with

sinks

changing room

3 hand-washing

stations

Personal Hygiene: Presentation Outline

1. Food handlers as a key element in the contamination paths of food

2. Behaviour patterns and facilities that improve food safety

3. Managing personal hygiene

Personal hygiene is a management responsibility

CULTURE

Financial means to provide

facilities and resources (human

and technical) to ensure GHP.

Clear guidance about expected

personnel hygiene behaviour

(including how to deal with

sickness, absence due to

sickness, disregard of hygiene

rules, responsibilities, etc.)

Hygiene culture through clear

commitment to GHP, visible

support of QS personnel,

requirement to adhere to hygiene

rules for all hierarchy levels.

Management

is responsible

for providing

Actively communicate personal hygiene directives

The importance of personal hygiene as one of the essential parts of a GMP programme has been explained in the module Introduction to Food Safety and Quality.

Directives on personal hygiene must be documented. Documents should

– be concise and instructive

– contain clear control measures and responsibilities,

– be distributed, and if necessary read, to all personnel (including management, administration) as well as to contractors and visitors (in a shortened version)

Documentation must cover ways of dealing with every day challenges (i.e. compliance with protective clothing) as well as situations of emergency such as illness and accidents.

An example of a guidance document for developing goodoperating practice procedures in personal hygiene andbehaviour is provided by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.

Controlled access and instantly visible signalling support

personal hygiene behaviour

In addition to documenting and communicating expected

hygienic behaviour the following measures of control to

ensure compliance of staff, contractors and visitors with

hygiene requirements are:

– controlled entry into food production sites

– instructions and visible signalling throughout premises.

These control measures are further discussed in the

Design and Facilities course.

Maintaining control over the health of food handlers

Results of medical screening can lead to a false sense of

security.

Being afraid of losing a job due to health status will prevent

people from being honest about their health.

A vigilant supervisor is probably the most effective means

of keeping ill workers from contact with food.

WHO report "Health surveillance and management

procedures for food-handling personnel“ provides current

international guidance on managing personnel hygiene.

Hygiene management of personnel starts from day one

Employee health status should be brought up at the point

of employment. Inform new employee that sick food-

handlers can transmit diseases to customers. Ask about:

– last illness with diarrhea or vomiting

– skin trouble anywhere on body

– discharges from eye, ear, mouth

– digestion problems

– medical history re typhoid/paratyphoid

Provide first hygiene training prior to uptake of work.

Adequate behavior must be taught and controlled

regular training sessions

are necessary to create

a stable level of

personal hygiene

in addition, regular

controls are required to

monitor the compliance

with regulations

Training starts on day one and needs regular repeating

good hygiene

bad hygiene

frequent training will lead to high

levels of personal hygiene

infrequent training will lead to

low levels of personal hygiene

repeat

trainings

time

date of

hiring

Correct people BUT ALSO give praise

Praise personnel when

things are done correctly.

This part tends to get

forgotten and people tire of

constantly being told what

was done wrongly.

A personal thank-you from a

supervisor for correct

behaviour works wonders.

Personal hygiene in food production: Conclusions

Humans shed microorganisms and can contaminate food through unhygienic behavior.

Food handlers need to be aware of indirect paths of contamination.

Washing hands is the most effective way to stop the spread of microorganisms.

Hygienic behavior includes the wearing of clean protective clothing and avoiding activities such as eating near unprotected food products.

Ill people must be prevented from handling food.

Personal hygiene is a management responsibility and directives must be documented in a GMP programme.

Personal hygiene can only ever be as good as the provided facilities.

Hygienic behavior must be taught and controlled.

You have reached the end of the presentation Personal

Hygiene in Food Production.

This presentation is from the course “Personal Hygiene” of the FAO

Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) Toolbox.

Readers are encouraged to visit the online resource for a full

learning experience.