Personal Hygiene in Food Production

http://www.fao.org/good-hygiene-practices-toolbox
This presentation is from the course “Personal Hygiene in Food Production” of the FAO Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) Toolbox.
Readers are encouraged to visit the online resource for a full learning experience.

© FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. Only minute amounts of certain pathogens are
necessary to cause infections
Campylobacter jejuniand
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 jejunion agar medium

10. 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
Campylobacterand would then
contaminate the tomato.

11. 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.

12. The contamination paths of the fecal-oral route are complex

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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 notreplace hand washing for food operators!

16. Gloves are not cleaner than hands
change gloves as often as you should wash your hands!

17. A special dress code is required for EVERYONE who
enters a food-handling area
cover hair
cover beards
no jewelry
clean protective clothing
clean shoes
EVERYONE:
food handlers
visitors
management
contractors
auditors

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Personal hygiene is a management responsibility
CULTURE
Financial meansto provide
facilities and resources (human
and technical) to ensure GHP.
Clear guidanceabout expected
personnel hygiene behaviour
(including how to deal with
sickness, absence due to
sickness, disregard of hygiene
rules, responsibilities, etc.)
Hygiene culturethrough clear
commitment to GHP, visible
support of QS personnel,
requirement to adhere to hygiene
rules for all hierarchy levels.
Management
is responsible
for providing

24. 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 exampleofa guidance documentfordevelopinggood
operatingpracticeproceduresin personal hygieneand
behaviouris provided by the New Zealand Food Safety
Authority.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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 touptake of work.

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.