Download Employee Health and Personal Hygiene

Employee Health and
Personal Hygiene
• Studies show that many cases of foodborne
illnesses can be linked directly to the lack of
attention to personal hygiene, cleanliness, and
food handling procedures.
• The Center for Communicable Disease issued a
list of infectious and communicable diseases
that are often transmitted through food prepared
by infected food handlers.
•
(refer to:
http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?q=list+
of+infectious+and+communicable+dis
eases+that+are+transmitted+through+
food&spell=1&ie=utf8).
• Providing safe food begins during the hiring
process.
• This strategy is accomplished through the health
screening and careful training of food service
employees after they have been hired.
• The hiring process should be followed by an
orientation and training on the standards of
proper hygiene established for food service
operations.
• Personal hygiene is simply the application of
principles for maintaining health and personal
cleanliness.
• Policies should be designed, implemented, and
monitored to cover employees’ illnesses, proper
attire, and personal hygiene habits.
• The specific methods aimed to fulfill the intent of
these policies are frequently referred to as
infection control procedures.
Healthy Food Handler
• A clean, hygienic environment starts with a
healthy food handler. For a food handler to be
considered healthy, he/she must be free from
diseases that may contaminate food, such as
intestinal disorders (typhoid fever and hepatitis),
respiratory tract diseases (tuberculosis, sore
throat, and colds), and skin diseases or
disorders (boils, lesions, and skin infections).
Proper Attire:
•
•
•
•
•
Hair Restraint
Work Clothes
Footwear
Facial Masks
Gloves
Personal Habits of Food Workers:
• Taking Daily Baths
• Trimming of Nails
• Shaving and Haircuts for
Males
• Covering of Wounds
• Wearing of Jewelry
• Wearing of Nail Polish or
false/artificial fingernails
•
•
•
•
Smoking and Eating
Hand Washing
Tasting of Food
Storing Personal
Belongings
• Other Personal Habits
What types of disease can good hand
washing prevent?
• Diseases can spread through fecal-oral
transmission.
• Infection which may be transmitted through this
route include salmonellosis, shigellosis, hepatitis
A, giardiasis, enterovirus, amoebiasis, and
camylobacteriosis.
Salmonellosis
• Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea,
fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours
after infection. In most cases, the illness lasts four to
seven days, and most people recover without treatment.
• In some cases, though, the diarrhea may be so severe,
the patient becomes dangerously dehydrated and must
be hospitalized.
Shigellosis
• Shigella is a genus of bacteria that are a major cause of
diarrhea and dysentery – diarrhea with blood and mucus
in the stools – throughout the world.
• In the body, they can invade and destroy the cells lining
the large intestine, causing mucosal ulceration and
bloody diarrhea.
• Apart from diarrhea, symptoms of Shigella infection
include fever, abdominal cramps, and rectal pain.
Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis A is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis A
virus. The virus is primarily spread when an uninfected
(and unvaccinated) person ingests food or water that is
contaminated with the feces of an infected person. The
disease is closely associated with a lack of safe water,
inadequate sanitation and poor personal hygiene.
Giardiasis
• Giardiasis is an infection of the small bowel by a singlecelled organism called Giardia lamblia. People become
infected with the Giardia parasite after swallowing
Giardia cysts often found in water contaminated by raw
sewage or animal waste.
• Giardia can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, gas, and
nausea.
Enterovirus
• The human enteroviruses are ubiquitous viruses that are
transmitted from person to person via direct contact with
virus shed from the gastrointestinal or upper respiratory
tract.
• Diseases caused by echoviral infections range from the
common cold and fever to aseptic meningitis and acute
hemorrhagic conjunctivitis (AHC).
Amoebiasis
• Symptoms can range from mild diarrhea to dysentery
with blood and mucus in the stool.
• If the parasite reaches the bloodstream it can spread
through the body, most frequently ending up in the liver
where it causes amoebic liver abscesses
Camylobacteriosis
• Diseases also spread through indirect contact
with respiratory secretions.
• Microorganisms which may be transmitted
through this route include influenza,
streptococcus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),
and the common cold.
• These diseases may be spread indirectly by
hands freshly soiled by respiratory discharges.
• This can be avoided by washing the hands after
coughing or sneezing and after shaking hands
with an individual who has been coughing or
sneezing.
• Diseases may also be acquired when hands are
contaminated with urine, saliva, or other moist
body fluids.
• Microorganisms which may be transmitted by
these body substances include cytomegalovirus,
staphylococcal organisms, and the Epstein-barr
virus.
• These germs may be transferred from
person-to-person or indirectly by the
contamination of food or inanimate objects
such as toys.
Steps in Proper Hand Washing
• Wet the hands with warm, running water.
• With soap, thoroughly wash the hands and
lather up to the elbow.
• Scrub thoroughly using a brush for the
nails, then rinse.
• Resoap and rub hands for at least 20
seconds. Pay special attention to the back
of the hands, wrists, between the fingers,
and under the fingernails.
• Hands should be rinsed well under running
water.
• Hands should be dried with a single-use
towel or hot air dryer.
• Turn off the faucet using a paper towel to
prevent contaminating it again.
• Use a disinfectant if available.
Wash hands after the following
activities:
• Coming on duty or entering the kitchen.
• Touching bare body parts other than clean
hands and the clean, exposed portions of arms.
• Using the toilet
• Coughing, sneezing, using a handkerchief or
disposable tissue, smoking, eating or drinking.
•
•
•
•
Handling soiled equipment or utensils.
Handling money.
Handling cleaning materials.
Food preparation (this should be done as often
as necessary to eradicate microorganisms and
to prevent cross-contamination when changing
tasks).
• Switching from working with raw food to working
with ready-to-eat food.
• Changing into uniform.
• Having a break.
• Leaving the kitchen.