Food Safety: How Food Handlers Can Contaminate Food

How People Can Contaminate Food

• Food handlers can contaminate food in several ways:
  • Touching their face.
  • Sneezing or coughing.
  • Having a wound that contains a pathogen.
  • Having contact with someone who is sick.
  • Not washing hands after using the restroom (fecal-oral route of contamination).
  • Having a foodborne illness or symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, or jaundice.
• Some illnesses can be spread before symptoms appear (e.g., hepatitis A) or after symptoms end (e.g., norovirus).
• Carriers are people who carry pathogens and infect others without getting sick themselves.

Actions That Can Contaminate Food

• Specific actions that can cause foodborne illness:
  • Scratching the scalp or running fingers through hair.
  • Sneezing or coughing into hands.
  • Wearing or touching dirty clothing or aprons.
  • Rubbing an ear.
  • Wiping or touching the nose.
  • Touching a pimple or an infected wound.
  • Spitting.

Managing Personal Hygiene Policies

• As a manager, you're responsible for food safety, including:
  • Creating good personal hygiene policies.
  • Revising policies periodically to stay updated.
  • Training and retraining food handlers on these policies.
  • Supervising food safety practices.
  • Modeling correct behavior.

Handwashing

• Importance: Handwashing is the most important part of personal hygiene.
• Location: Hands should only be washed in a sink designed for handwashing, never in food prep or dishwashing sinks.
• Five-Step Process:
  1. Wet hands and arms with warm running water.
  2. Apply enough soap to build up a good lather, following the manufacturer's recommendations.
  3. Scrub hands and arms vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds, cleaning fingertips, under fingernails, and between fingers.
  4. Rinse hands and arms thoroughly under warm running water.
  5. Dry hands and arms with a hand dryer or a single-use paper towel.
  • Use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the door to avoid recontamination.
• Action Needed: If food handlers aren't washing their hands correctly:
  • Dispose of contaminated food.
  • Clean and sanitize any utensils and equipment that may have been contaminated.
  • Retrain or coach those food handlers.

When to Wash Hands

• Always wash your hands:
  • Before preparing food or working with clean equipment and utensils.
  • After using the restroom.
  • After handling soiled items and before touching clean items.
  • After touching your body or clothing.
  • After handling raw meat, poultry, or seafood.
  • After taking out garbage.
  • After sneezing or coughing, blowing your nose, or using a handkerchief or tissue.
  • After eating, drinking, chewing gum, or using tobacco products (including e-cigarettes).
  • After handling money.
  • After handling chemicals that can make food unsafe.
  • After touching service or aquatic animals.
  • After leaving the kitchen or food prep area and then returning to it.
  • When changing tasks.
  • Before putting on single-use gloves.
  • After touching electronic devices.
• Food handlers should try to wash their hands every time they touch anything that could possibly contaminate them.

Hand Antiseptics (Hand Sanitizers)

• Hand antiseptics can reduce pathogens but are not a substitute for handwashing.
• Only use hand antiseptic after handwashing, never in place of it.
• Wait for the antiseptic to dry before touching food or equipment.
• Ensure the hand antiseptic complies with CFR and FDA standards.

Hand Care

• Fingernails:
  • Keep nails short, clean, and filed to prevent pathogenAccumulation
  • Nail polish and false fingernails should not be worn unless single-use gloves are used
• Wounds:
  • Cover infected wounds, cuts, and boils to prevent pathogens from contaminating food.
  • Wounds on the hand, finger, or wrist: use an impermeable cover (finger cot or bandage) and then a single-use glove.
  • Arm wounds: cover completely with an impermeable cover.
  • Wounds on other parts of the body: cover with a dry, durable, tight-fitting bandage.

Gloves

• Use gloves approved for food service.
• Ensure gloves are single-use only, never washed or reused.
• Provide a variety of sizes for staff.
• Consider providing non-latex gloves due to sensitivities.

How to Use Gloves

• Gloves are not a replacement for correct handwashing.
• Always wash hands before putting on gloves when starting a new task.
• Put gloves on carefully, holding them by the edge and avoiding touching the glove as much as possible.
• Do not blow into gloves or roll them up.
• Check gloves for rips or tears once they're on.

When to Change Gloves

• Change gloves:
  • As soon as they become dirty or torn.
  • Before beginning a different task.
  • If you get interrupted during a task.
  • After handling raw meat, seafood, or poultry, and before handling ready-to-eat food.
  • After four hours of continuous use.

Bare Hand Contact with Ready-to-Eat Food

• Avoid touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands, especially if serving a high-risk population.
• Exceptions:
  • Washing produce.
  • Handling ready-to-eat ingredients for a dish that will be cooked to the correct internal temperature (at least $145^{\circ}F$ or $63^{\circ}C$ if the dish does not contain raw meat, seafood, or poultry).
  • If the dish contains raw meat, seafood, or poultry, cook the food to the required minimum temperature of those raw items.

Personal Cleanliness and Hygiene

• Shower or bathe before work.
• Follow a dress code to minimize pathogens on clothing.
• Wear a clean hat or hair covering in food prep areas.
• Limit hair accessories to those that keep hair out of food.
• Wear a beard restraint if you have facial hair.
• Wear clean clothes at work daily, changing into work clothes after arriving if possible.
• Store street clothes and personal items in designated areas.
• Store dirty clothing in non-absorbent containers or washable laundry bags.
• Remove aprons and store them correctly when leaving food prep areas, and never wipe hands on aprons.

Jewelry

• Remove jewelry from hands and arms before prepping food, including bracelets, medical bracelets, watches, and rings (except for plain band rings).
• Some managers may require removing other jewelry like necklaces, earrings, and facial jewelry.
• Servers can wear jewelry if allowed by company policy.

Eating, Drinking, Smoking, and Chewing Gum or Tobacco

• Saliva contains pathogens that can cause foodborne illness.
• Eating, drinking, smoking, chewing gum, and using tobacco products can transfer pathogens to hands or food.
• Only do these things in designated areas.
• If drinking in food or food prep areas, use a container with a sip lid or a lid and straw.

Sick Employees

• Staff must report illnesses to management. The regulatory authority may ask for proof of this.
• Provide signed statements, training documentation, signs, or pocket cards to remind staff.
• Depending on the illness, employees may need to be restricted or excluded from work.
• Restrict: Sick food handler is restricted from working with exposed food, utensils, or equipment.
• Exclude: Employee is not allowed to come to work while sick.

Illnesses and Actions

• Sore Throat and Fever:
  • Restrict from working with exposed food, utensils, or equipment.
  • Exclude if primarily serving a high-risk population until they get a written release from a medical practitioner.
• Infected Wound or Boil:
  • Restrict from working with exposed food, utensils, and equipment unless properly covered.
• Persistent Cough and Runny Nose:
  • Restrict from working with exposed food, utensils, and equipment if causing discharge from the eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Vomiting or Diarrhea:
  • Exclude from the operation until they get a written release from a medical practitioner or have had no symptoms for at least 24 hours.
• Jaundice:
  • Exclude from the operation if they have had jaundice for seven days or less.
  • Report to the local regulatory authority.
  • Require a written release from a medical practitioner and approval from the local regulatory authority before returning to work.
• Salmonella Typhi, Hepatitis A, Norovirus, Shigella, Nontyphoidal Salmonella, or Shiga Toxin-Producing E. Coli (STEC):
  • Exclude from the operation.
• Management should consult with a medical practitioner and local regulatory authority to determine when a person can return to the operation.

Manager Responsibilities

• Pay attention to the health of your staff, watching for signs of illness.
• Report certain diagnoses to the local regulatory authority:
  • Nontypoidal Salmonella
  • Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella species, Shiga toxin-producing E. Coli (STEC), or Salmonella Typhi (if diagnosed in a food handler or someone they live with).