Unit 1 Lesson 3 – Identify effective personal hygiene practices relating to protective clothing, hand washing, personal illness, cuts, wounds, food handling practices. Copy
This lesson looks more at the how rather than the what or why. How do you correctly wash your hands, how do you use PPE and others keys parts of the Food Hygiene Process.
We will be focusing on, Practices in a food retail environment regarding:
- Clean, suitable protective clothing
- Jewellery and personal effects
- Effective hand washing
- Times to wash hands
- Recognising illness which may cause food contamination
- When to come to work and when to call in sick
- Covering wounds
- Personal habits to avoid
Why do we need protective clothing in the food industry?
The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations state that “Every person working in a food handling area shall maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and shall wear suitable, clean, and where appropriate, protective clothing.” These Regulations also state that “adequate changing facilities for personnel must be provided where necessary”
Food safety law clearly states that protective clothing must be worn in the workplace when handling food. The clothing must be suitable and clean so that it protects food from pathogenic and physical contamination.
Pockets are not advisable as the temptation can arise to place the hands within the pockets and also place items in pockets that could lead to physical contamination.
Protective clothing needs to be stored alone to prevent contamination. Changing areas need to be kept clean so that physical contamination is avoided.
One frequently recorded complaint of physical contamination is finding hair on food. Tying back hair, wearing hairnets will reduce the likelihood of hair showing up on food. Hats should be worn first to stop hair from falling onto other clothing. The document attached on the next page provides a detailed look at the rules and regulations around Protective clothing.
