Food handlers - fitness to work

• Your responsibilities as a food handler
• Wash your hands thoroughly
• Tell your boss if you are unwell
• Checklist for good hygiene practice

Your responsibilities as a food handler

You can pass on germs when you handle food. To prevent this you must:

• Always wash your hands
• Tell your boss if you are unwell

Wash your hands thoroughly

Use warm water and soap to wash your hands after:

• visiting the WC at home and at work
• before starting work or after taking a break
• after handling rubbish
• after handling raw foods
• after smoking, eating or drinking
• after putting your hand over your nose or mouth
• after touching your hair

And dry your hands after you have washed them

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Tell your boss if you are unwell

If you have been sick, have diarrhoea, feel unwell, or were ill while on holiday, and if anyone in your household is sick or has diarrhoea tell your boss.

Tell your boss if:

• If you have sickness or diarrhoea it may be caused by a germ; you must not handle food until you are better.
• Typhoid and paratyphoid fever are rare but serious illnesses.
• You have a legal duty to tell your boss if you have diarrhoea, sickness, or infectious disease.

Checklist for good hygiene practice

• Wash and dry your hands thoroughly after going to the WC and before handling food.
• Do not handle food if you are suffering from diarrhoea and/or vomiting
• Tell your boss if you or anyone in your household is ill.
• Tell your boss if you have infected cuts or sores.
• Use bright coloured waterproof coverings (blue) for cuts and grazes.
• Do not spit, smoke, eat or chew gum when you are handling food.
• Make sure your work clothes are clean.
• Keep your workplace, especially surfaces and utensils, clean.
• Tell your boss if you were ill while on holiday.
• If you have to visit the doctor, remember to say you are a food handler.