Hands and Health Issues

Hands and Health Issues

Hand Washing is very important and it is essential that hands are washed correctly. Hot water and soap should be used, all parts of the hands and wrists should be washed, including palms, backs of hands and in between fingers. Hands should then be rinsed and dried. Ideally taps should be knee operated or sensor operated so that you don’t have to touch the tap with your dirty hands to turn it on. If you do need to touch it you should turn it off by using a paper towel so your clean hand does not come in contact with the dirty tap.

When to Wash your hands:

• Before you start work.
• After each break.
• After visits to toilet.
• After Smoking.
• After touching your nose, hair, ears, mouth, or face.
• After handling rubbish.
• Before handling High Risk Food.

Finger nails should be kept short and clean. No nail varnish of false nails should be worn.

Smoking and Eating

If you smoke, or eat food, your fingers touch your lips and then transfer bacteria to food, equipment or work surfaces. Smoke can also get onto your clothes, so you should not wear your protective clothing when you smoke and you should wash yours hands before starting work again.

Health Issues

Coughing, blowing your nose and sneezing all spread bacteria and potentially viruses, so you need to be careful how you do these, and wash your hands afterwards.

Cuts, grazes, skin problems need to be covered up to prevent any contamination of food. Cuts should be covered with a blue waterproof dressing to prevent anything coming out of you cut and contaminating food. The blue colour will make it easy to find if it falls off.

Stomach upsets or diarrhoea must be reported, by law.

Colds or throat infections may mean you should not be at work. If you are unsure, talk to your manager.

Stomach upset, bowel disorder or skin problem MUST be reported to your supervisor.

Some diseases are reportable and it is vital to do so. If you do not, you can contaminate the food with bacteria or viruses that may be in your body and making you ill which you can put onto the food you handle and pass the problem on to your customers.

If you have Diarrhoea or Vomiting you must report it to your Manager Before starting work , ideally do not go into work. This may be caused by pathogens or you may have Norovirus. Both these are an issue as you can spread the Pathogens or Norovirus round the shop and potentially infect the food you will be selling to customers. You should not start work before you have been given permission to do so. Your manager may give you different duties to do, ones that do not bring you near to food or packaging or he may say you cannot work at all. If you are off work with Food Poisoning you can only return to work after you have been symptom free for at least 48 hours.