1 Hygiene in the Workplace

Inadequate personal hygiene can cause:

• food contamination,
• food poisoning, and
• spreading of infection.

1. MAINTAIN good personal hygiene. This includes daily baths or showers, frequent shampoos, clean clothes, short clean nails, and good dental hygiene.
2. WASH YOUR HANDS. Dirty hands are prime culprits in transmitting contaminants to food. Scrub hands after touching food; after smoking, chewing tobacco, eating and drinking, taking out the garbage, touching body parts such as the mouth, or after going to the washroom; before performing the next job function.
3. SANITIZE hands after washing if a facility is available.
4. REPORT immediately any symptoms of illness or infection to a doctor.
5. COVER any cuts with a bandage and wear clean gloves.
6. CHANGE gloves if you touch anything that would require washing hands.
7. Touch food with your hands as little as possible.
8. WEAR hair nets to prevent the deposition of loose hair on food. The average person loses about 50 hairs per day.
9. DO NOT USE aprons to dry your hands.
10. DO NOT SMOKE in food preparation areas.
11. USE water at a temperature that is comfortable to wash for 20 seconds.
12. USE A BRUSH FOR NAILS to remove contaminants under the nails.
13. WASH FOR 20 SECONDS the hands, wrists, forearms up to elbow and other areas that may come in contact with food.
14. RINSE thoroughly and dry using single service towel or hot-air dryer.
    

    

15. DO NOT USE your hands to remove leftover food from plates.
16. DO NOT COME to work if you have a cold or a sore throat. Coughing and sneezing will contaminate food and the work area with germs.
17. DO NOT WEAR rubber or latex gloves near open flames or other heat sources. Gloves may melt or catch fire.
18. AVOID WEARING jewelry in food preparation areas, especially rings; they may catch dirt and make it harder to clean hands.
19. DO NOT COMB your hair in food preparation areas. DO NOT LEAVE articles of clothing in the food preparation area.  Use the closet or cloak room.

Foodservice Workers Safety Guide, 6th Edition, pp 94-96, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), 2013. Reproduced with the permission of CCOHS, 2022.