Level 1 · Lesson 2

Personal hygiene

You are one of the biggest sources of contamination in any food business. This lesson is about controlling that source before your shift even starts.

Think about everything your hands touch in one hour of work. Then think about what they touch next.

Your phone

Door handles

Raw meat

Packaging

Bins and pallets

Your hands

The same hands then touch the food. Hygiene is how you break that chain.

Handwashing

Around 20 seconds, and the spots people miss

20sWarm water & soap

Backs of the handsMissed by almost everyone

Between the fingersWhere soap rarely reaches

ThumbsRushed past in a hurry

Under the nailsBacteria sit here longest

A quick rinse under a cold tap removes almost nothing. The time and the coverage are what do the work.

Handwashing

Twenty seconds. Try it.

0seconds

Hold the button down. Let go when it starts to feel long.

When to wash

Knowing how is half of it. Knowing when is the other half

After the toilet

No exceptions, ever

After raw meat, poultry or fish

Before anything ready to eat

After breaks, smoking or eating

Coming back onto the floor

Before handling food

And between different tasks

The simple rule: if you have just switched from one job to another, wash your hands on the way.

When to wash

Which of these needs a wash?

Your turn

What would you do?

You wash your hands properly at the start of a task. Then your phone buzzes and you check it, you push through a swing door, and you go back to plating a ready-to-eat salad.

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Protective clothing

Your uniform is a barrier, not a costume

Your everyday clothesThe bus, your hallway, the changing room floor

Clean uniform, apron, hatThe barrier you put on at work

The foodWhat the customer eats

This is why you change into clean kit at work instead of arriving in it, and why aprons stay off in the toilet and on breaks.

Gloves

A glove is only as clean as the hand inside it

The trap

Gloves feel like protection, so one pair gets worn for everything all shift
A dirty glove spreads bacteria exactly like a dirty hand does
Gloves never replace washing, they only cover a hand that must already be clean

When to change them

At the same moments you would wash: between raw and ready to eat, and between tasks
After touching your face, hair, a bin or your phone, and the instant one tears
Wash hands before putting them on and after taking them off, and never reuse a pair

In a kitchen you change gloves between jobs. On a production line the change points are built into the process and often colour coded, so the discipline is the same in both.

Choosing gloves

The right glove, worn the right way

Which glove

Nitrile is the food safe default: strong, no latex allergy risk, fine with fats and oils
Vinyl and polyethylene are lighter and looser, suited to short, low risk jobs
Latex is restricted in many food businesses, as its proteins can transfer to food and cause reactions

Blue and detectable

Blue is the food standard, because almost no food is that colour so a stray piece stands out
On a line, blue detectable nitrile is caught by a metal detector if a piece tears off
That works the same way as a blue detectable dressing, and for the same reason

Whatever the type, fit it properly, check it for tears before use, and peel it off without touching the outside, so what is on the glove never reaches your hands.

Before you start

Jewellery off, hair tied back and covered

Rings and watches

They trap bacteria underneath, where soap and water never reach
A stone or a strap can come loose and drop into food as a physical hazard
A plain band is usually the most any site allows, and some allow none

Hair

Loose hair falls into food and carries bacteria with it
A hat or a net keeps it contained for the whole shift
On a production line, hair is one of the most common physical complaints

Both rules exist for the same two reasons: they stop bacteria hiding, and they stop objects ending up in the food.

Covering cuts

Blue, waterproof, and detectable

Why blue

Almost no food is naturally blue. If the dressing comes off, it stands out immediately against the food or the line, so it gets spotted instead of served.

Why detectable

It holds a thin metal strip. If it ends up in a product, a metal detector on the line can pick it up and reject the pack before it ever reaches a customer.

Waterproof matters too. It keeps the dressing on and keeps whatever is in the cut away from the food.

Small habits

The moments that undo everything else

Touching hair or face

Then going straight back to the food

Tasting with fingers or a used spoon

Or putting the spoon back in the pot

Coughing or sneezing over food

Turn away, then wash your hands

These feel like nothing in the moment. They are the exact seconds bacteria move from you onto what someone eats.

The seven things to remember

1Wash properly for around 20 seconds: backs, between fingers, thumbs, under nails

2Wash after the toilet, raw meat, breaks, smoking and eating, and before handling food

3Your uniform is a barrier between your everyday clothes and the food

4Gloves never replace clean hands: wash first, change them like you would wash, use once

5Rings and watches off, hair tied back and covered

6Cover cuts with a blue, waterproof, detectable dressing

7No touching hair or face, no tasting with fingers or a used spoon, no coughing over food

Sample question

One question from the quiz

Why are dressings used on cuts in a food business blue and detectable?

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