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.
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

in the nose

in the mouth

on the skin
on hair (incl. beards
and mustaches)

under the nails

The human gastro-intestinal tract excretes microorganisms

excretion

1 kg

– 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

shedding starts pathogens continue to be shed!

illness
ends

time

– 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.
 Wounds shed pathogenic microorganisms

wound healed

time

– 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.
 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 Campylobacter jejuni on agar medium
infecting the food they are
preparing.
Both direct and indirect routes of contamination exist

direct indirect

Direct contamination involves Indirect contamination is possible

transfer of microorganisms from
people to food through direct
physical contact.
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 Step 1 Step 2

only requires three elements:
– running water,
– soap, and
– something to dry hands
with.
Step 3 Step 4
Careful washing includes
scrubbing palms, back of
hands, between fingers,
under nails.
The correct washing of hands
takes time!
 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

EVERYONE:
 food handlers
cover beards
 visitors
 management no jewelry
 contractors
 auditors clean shoes
clean protective clothing
Hairnets and coats for visitors must be available at the
entrance to production areas

If you want
personnel to wear
hairnets and visitors
to comply with your cupboard with
hygiene dress-code hairnets and coats

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, Personal items such as jewels,

spitting, smoking, chewing gum or watches, radios and telephones
tobacco near open food. 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 -18°C
Office/
will not implement Canteen
3 hand-washing
recommended stations
levels of personal
Production Bottling
hygiene. 4°C

Depicted is a
layout of a food Office/
producing factory Visitors
changing room
with adequate 2 toilets with
sinks
facilities that are HW
Washing
correctly Water-Prep.

positioned.
 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

Financial means to provide

facilities and resources (human
and technical) to ensure GHP.

Clear guidance about expected

Management personnel hygiene behaviour
is responsible (including how to deal with
for providing sickness, absence due to
sickness, disregard of hygiene
rules, responsibilities, etc.)

Hygiene culture through clear

CULTURE
commitment to GHP, visible
support of QS personnel,
requirement to adhere to hygiene
rules for all hierarchy levels.
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 good
operating practice procedures in personal hygiene and
behaviour 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

date of frequent training will lead to high

good hygiene
hiring levels of personal hygiene

repeat
trainings

infrequent training will lead to

low levels of personal hygiene

bad hygiene

time
 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.