Uniform for food personnel

Food workers are required to maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and wear suitable clean clothes, and, if necessary, protective clothing.

All personnel working in food processing or utensil-cleaning areas should be provided with clean outer uniform daily.

In the work place, all personnel must use protection clothing/uniform which must have the following characteristics:
- Light coloured
- Always clean and in good state
- Should not have exterior pockets
- Should be regularly changed
- Should cover the whole body
- Should be made of wash resistant material
- Should only be used in the work place

Uniforms, aprons and garments should be clean at the beginning of each shift and changed regularly when necessary. Uniforms or aprons should not be worn outside the food-preparation area.

Remember that the protective clothing particularly for “high care” work areas should never be worn outside the production area. The operatives must change out of it when leaving their work area even when visiting the canteen.

Hair must be protected with a cap, hat or hair net. Bobby pins should not be used to help keep the cap, hat or hair net in place, since these may fall into the food.
Uniform for food personnel

Food Hygiene in Food Preparation

Preparing and supplying food that is safe to eat involves careful food hygiene.

Food hygiene refers to the practices which should be followed to make sure that food is safe and wholesome throughout all the stages of production from purchase to consumption.

It’s aimed at keeping food clean by:
*Protecting food from contamination by bacteria
*Preventing bacteria from multiplying in food
*Destroying bacteria by cooking

Premises, staff and equipment must be kept clean. Food must be handled and stored safely.

It must be prepared in safe surroundings to reduce the risk of serious illness.

Everybody involved in the production of food should receive training about safe practice and how to use them in the workplace.

In food preparation, personal hygiene refers to the way the person keep themselves clean and handle food to keep it safe to eat.

Poor food hygiene can lead to outbreaks of food poisoning which can cause serous illness. Some groups of the population are particularly vulnerable, for example the elderly, the very young and people who are already ill.

Also with more frequent people away from home, outbreaks of food borne disease are becoming more frequent.

The food handler should know that some microorganisms are useful to human and some are harmful causing food spoilage and disease.

Poor hygiene can also result in wastage of contaminated food, infestation by pests, time of from work because of illness, loss of customers and profits, as well as possible legal action.

Food that is kept too long can go bad and contain toxic chemicals or pathogens and food stuff that are eaten raw, such as fruits or vegetables, can become contaminated by dirty hands, unclean water or flies.

Improperly prepared food can also cause chemical poisoning: cassava leaf that ahs not been properly pounded and cooked, for example, may contain dangerous levels of cyanide.

Food hygiene is essential because the food that have been eaten plays an important part in keeping people healthy. Food hygiene involves more that cleanliness.
Food Hygiene in Food Preparation

Personal Hygiene – basic practice to prevent bacterial contamination

Food can be contaminated whether it is made from scratch or prepackaged. However, the main culprit of contamination is bacteria.

Pathogenic bacteria carried on the hands and transferred into foods during its preparation are one of the most common causes of food contamination.

Food must be handled sanitarily in order to prevent the growth of microorganisms already present and to prevent further contamination. Personal hygiene is the best way to stop bacteria form contaminating and spreading into new areas.

Rules of personal hygiene that must be strictly observed by food handlers are reasonable and require little more than common sense and awareness.

1. Person with communicable disease, including skin infections, should never be allowed to handle foods to be consumed by other. Obviously, this means that all food handlers must undergo periodic physical examinations to establish this qualification. An employee who has the symptoms of the common cold or any open cuts or infections should not go to work.

2. Hand cream with disinfectant should be used to keep the skin in good condition. Cracks and grooves in the skin surfaces or round the nails or knuckles usually harbor Staphylococci bacteria which are not easily removed when the hands are washed.

3. Food handlers should observe physical cleanliness and should wear clean (preferably white) work uniforms (no jewelry).

4. They should keep the head covered. Clean shaven or facial hair contained in a net. Nail should always be kept short and should be scrubbed whenever the hands are washed because bacterial will collected under them.

5. When possible, gloves should be worn, but whether or nit gloves are worn, the hands should be washed and dipped in a disinfectant prior to handling food. The hands should be rewashed after handling anything dirty such as touching dirty apron or taking out the thrash.

6. When handling foods, the hand should not touch the mouth, nose, or other part of the body, especially body openings, since these are possible sources of pathogens.

7. Smoking or eating by employees in food preparation areas is prohibited because of the potential that the hands, food and food contact surfaces may become contaminated.

8. Pets and other animals do not belong in the food processing area.

9. Squeezing and coughing should be confined to a handkerchief, and in fact, the individual should leave the work area when either is imminent. Employees should wash their hands after coughing, sneezing or blowing their nose.

10. Cloths should not be used for cleaning.

11. Foods that appear to be unwholesome, or that may contain unacceptable contaminants, should not be handled.

12. Liquid soap dispenser is more hygienic than a soap tablet which is used by everybody. These should be used when working with high risk food. Personal
Hygiene – basic practice to prevent bacterial contamination