Personal Safety Standards

Page 1

Clothing

Uniforms, aprons, and garments should be clean when beginning a shift and change regularly when necessary

Employees should not wear uniforms or aprons outside of the food preparation area

Avoid wearing damaged or worn out uniforms, aprons or garments

Personal clothing should not be worn in the working area

Uniform of any kind should not be worn travelling to and from work

Storage facilities and changing amenities should be provided for the overall benefit of the business

Dirty clothing items should be stored in a laundry bag and away from food preparation areas

Educate yourself on the reasons of uniform and protective clothing

Page 2

Personal Hygiene

When working in any environment with food maintaining a high standard of hand-washing is extremely important. The diagram below outlines the best way to wash your hands and ensure you are safe to interact with food.

You should wash your hands frequently (every 20 minutes) or after the following occurrences:

Before beginning or recommencing work

After using the toilet

Before handling cooked foods

When handling or preparing raw food

After touching bins or handling rubbish

After smoking

When you cough, sneeze, touch bare skin etc. Moreover, you are better off using disposable tissues rather than a handkerchief

After cleaning, interacting with people and handling money

The best means of washing your hands is with hot soapy water.

Page 3

Personal Hygiene

Keep your hair in a neat and tidy state, and where provided wear a hairnet in the presence of food

Wear clean protective clothing when interacting with food

Keep fingernails trimmed and do not wear artificial nails or fingernail polish

Utilise single-use gloves for handling and preparing food; this will help to prevent contamination with frequent changing

If using multi-use gloves make sure they are washed, sanitised and rinsed between uses

Remove all jewellery from hands and arms

Make sure to keep all cuts, grazes and sores bandaged up with an easily identifiable coloured band-aid

Showering on a daily basis will help to prevent pathogens from skin and hair coming into contact with food

What do you do when suffering from ailments and illnesses that may be a hazard to food safety?

The first step is to not panic when feeling sick in the working environment

Common ailments which people suffer from that effect the safety of food are vomiting and diarrhoea

Report to a supervisor in the event of suffering from any ailment or illness

It is better that you remain absent while sick rather than be around areas of food preparation

If you do suffer from diarrhoea or vomiting, you should not return to work until 48 hours after the symptoms have cleared