Personal Hygiene in the Workplace

Introduction

Personal hygiene in the place of work is essential because it keeps the people or the workers in a clean environment that will be able to please the customers. Cleanliness is necessary to keep people in good health and ensure that there are no contaminations in the workplace and the goods being processed or produced in the workplace. We will look at hygiene by taking critical concerns in the Australian Food Standards and safety laws, with our main aim being to understand the hygiene practices required in their workplace (Ghezzi & Ayoun, 2021). These laws concern the hygiene procedures responsibilities through analysis of hazards, cleaning of the workplace and equipment to avoid contamination, personal hygiene preventing food contamination and many other hygiene practices.

Personal hygiene context

Personal hygiene in the food production restaurant is required because the value of then cleanliness in the food industry should be high to avoid cleanliness. Personal hygiene should be taken into consideration because everybody in the restaurant and the workplace deserve a healthy working environment and therefore everybody should work towards achieving self-hygiene. Personal hygiene includes bathing or washing hands after one has visited the toilets, grooming well, brushing teeth and taking good care of one mouth, dressing neat and keeping the clothes clean. These factors together determine the level of hygiene in a person. Where these practices are not well carried out, the environment is unsafe for working as it will be prone to contamination which will affect the final output of the workplace.

Importance of personal hygiene

Personal hygiene is essential because it helps one to protect himself from the infections such as flu, colds and other infectious diseases. It enables the workplace in the industry to produce disease-free food that is not contaminated. Personal hygiene also helps maintain a clean working environment in a food-producing industry that makes every employee feel free to work in a conducive environment, hence boosting the production in the industry, which also improves the industry’s performance. It helps in preventing the spread of disease in the working area, which helps in ensuring that everyone is safe from the disease and also ensures that there will be no time wasted in the treatment of ill employees due to the outbreak of a hygienic disease in the workplace, hence saving on the extra charges which would instead have been used in the treatment process.

Possible and potential food safety hazards due to health issues.

Many hazards can arise due to a lack of good workplace hygiene practices dealing with food production. These hazards include

1. Food contamination occurs when the person touching the food has not maintained a high level of hygiene, making the food contaminated with dirt, which may carry a lot of known severe bacteria, which can lead to serious illness if another person consumes the food. This can also lead to food going wrong for a short period than expected because there might be an invasion of food biodegradable bacteria that can degrade the food components if spoiled quickly. The food is disposed of when this happens, which may lead to losses.
2. Illness– if the person handling the food is sick or suffering from a disease, they can contaminate the food and risk the lives of the other colleagues and the food consumers. It is always advisable that sick individuals stay at home to stop endangering the lives and health of other people in the workplace and the food being produced.
3. Cross-contamination– this hazard occurs when the illnesses are transferred to other people within the working environment due to unobserved personal hygiene by one or any of the employees in the workplace. This can occur when diseases like cholera, whooping cough, and flu are transmitted uncontrollably within the working environment due to a lack of personal hygiene.
4. Fingernails are known to be the source and host of some bacteria. For the fingernails that are not well managed, the bacteria can hide in the fingernails and be transmitted in the food in the workplace, which can put other people’s lives in danger. Fingernails in a working environment that deals with food production should be managed appropriately to avoid the transmission of bacteria which can lead to food spoilage and also lead to diseases in the working environment.
5. Long hair– Long and open air can also be hazardous because this hair can drop into the foodstuff and cause contamination, leading to food spoilage in the working environment.

Personal Hygiene Practices

1. Washing hands regularly– washing hands regularly is very important because it helps people to keep the bacteria away, which can lead to illness in human health and also food spoilage in the food production industry or a hotel.
2. Cutting or manicuring fingernails– cutting fingernails is another personal hygiene practice that should be considered because many bacteria can hide in the long and unmanaged fingernails and be introduced into the foodstuff during operation in the workplace. This can lead to severe illness in individuals in the workplace and also the spoilage of some food that is sensitive to hygiene.
3. Brushing and flossing teeth; using mouthwash– brushing teeth also helps keep away the bacteria that can be introduced to the food through talking in the workplace and prevents the conduction of some viruses through the mouth.
4. Washing scalp and hair and maintaining facial hair– this should be done because some people in the workplace may be touching their beards and hair and continue touching food without washing their hands. The beards and long hair could carry bacteria that can cause workplace infections and lead to food spoilage (Thomann, 2020). To prevent people from frequently touching their faces and beards, cutting or trimming the hair to the recommended length is required, as also keeping it clean to ensure it does not host any bacteria.
5. Dealing with body piercings and body piercing is discouraged because it can make one always feel uncomfortable with the pierced part of the body, which will make them tempted to touch the pierced parts frequently. This can lead to food contamination when these people touch themselves and continue touching food in the workplace.
6. Wearing clean clothing and personal protective equipment –it is always advised that after arriving at work, one should change the clothes (home clothes) and wear the clothes provided and recommended for the workplace because they are maintained clean by the health management and safety in the hotel. They are also free from infections because they are treated with antibacterial chemicals to prevent away bacteria.
7. Treating skin allergies, conditions, or wounds– wounds and skin allergies in the workplace should be treated before the person enters the workplace because some of the skin allergy bacteria are contracted through the body conduct and can therefore be transferred in the workplace. Wounds should be treated to keep away bacteria.
8. Using anti-deodorants- anti-deodorants are very important in the workplace because they help control sweating in individuals, supporting personal hygiene and reducing body odor. This helps maintain the workplace in good condition because the person will have controlled some of the poor hygiene practices like sweating, which can contaminate the food in the workplace.

Personal hygiene procedure

In the workplace, every work should consider their hygiene to ensure that we produce non-contaminated foods in our restaurant.

Procedure for personal hygiene

• Ensure that you wear the work clothes that the hygiene department provides and follow the rules given by the store attendant when given the clothes. One should change the home clothes and wear these protective clothes that have been cleaned by the staff and kept in good condition.
• After arriving at work, wash your hands in the water station outside the restaurant with the hotel soap that has been provided. This helps in preventing any contamination that can come from the hands (Leibler et al., 2017). Failing to wash hands before entering a food production premises can cause much contamination because one can carry dangerous bacteria into the food being produced, which can even lead to severe contamination of the food in the workplace. Food poisoning can also occur in the same process, ruining the production process and making other people, like clients, suffer (Moghnia, 2021). To solve this, hospitality management requires everybody to wash their hands because nobody can know what the other person has been touching, as one could have been interacting with severe chemicals, which can even lead to death.
• In the workplace, every worker must have a handkerchief and a facemask. This ensures that everybody is safe from the contamination of sweating and sneezing, which can also contaminate the food being produced. This prevents people from coughing or sneezing on their hands and continuing with the work without washing those (Kamboj et al., 2020). Coughing and sneezing not only contaminate the food but also keeps other workers at risk of contracting airborne diseases like whooping cough, asthma, tuberculosis and other dangerous diseases, which can lead to health hazards in the workplace. Personal hygiene is required to keep every worker in a safe place where the disease cannot be quickly contacted by keeping everybody in a place to care for his hygiene.
• The utensils should be cleaned thoroughly during work, and the working areas should be kept clean to avoid contamination of newly processed food or utensils. This prevents situations where processed foods can be mixed with contaminated leftovers from either other people’s food or the food left in the workplace within the utensils. Some instances may occur when the food being produced is passed through some tests to measure the quality. When this food does not meet the desired quality, for example, the food is too salty to be taken, it is kept in the quarantine bins where it is disposed of (Jianu & Goleţ, 2020). The utensils carrying this food should be washed because they contaminate the other prepared food similarly. The production supervisors should make sure that the disposal of this food is.
• Tasting foods in the workplace with fingers or any article and returning them to the food without washing is prohibited. This leads to food contamination through mouth fluids, which can introduce serious bacteria into the food. Some of these bacteria can cause severe illnesses like diarrhea and serious stomachaches due to running stomachs.
• Nobody should be found in the workplace combing their hair, picking pimples, picking their nose, rubbing fingers, touching edges of mouth when talking to someone, smoking, licking limbs or fingers and other practices like wiping perspirations of his or her body.
• Every work worker should adhere to the set rules and regulations to ensure that our health and the food we produce are safe from diseases and contaminations.

Food safety policy summary

Food produced in the workplace should be tested in case of contamination, and thorough inspections from the hospitality department should be done during work. Any allergies should be treated to prevent unnecessary people from scratching their skin and sneezing in the workplace (Vidhubala & Priscilla, 2019). Also, people should brush their teeth properly to avoid germs that can invade through talking.

Customer service should also be protected from contamination by keeping the working areas clean and ensuring that customers are clean by providing water for washing hands before entering and exiting the restaurant.

The management will ensure that all food safety procedures are followed in production and will provide penalty actions for people found violating workplace rules (Singer & Endreny, 2019). The government will also perform weekly inspections in the workplace by sending inspectors to form the health and food safety departments.

Three examples of Major hygiene-related causes of food contamination and food-borne illnesses

The first example of the hygiene-related causes of food contamination is

1. Coli- E coli is a gram-positive bacteria that can be transmitted due to poor hygiene, where people fail to sanitize their equipment well and also wash their hands. E coli strains can survive extreme temperatures in the kitchen; therefore, they must be prevented because they are very dangerous.
2. Hepatitis A- hepatitis mainly outbreaks in the places like farms where the production of fruits and personal hygiene is poorly maintained (Stringer, 2018). They can cause severe illnesses, so personal hygiene practices must be carried out in the farm areas to prevent this infection.
3. Salmonella- this is the bacteria that causes typhoid. Poor hygiene practices can trigger the spread of this bacteria. Washing hands and cleaning the working area, including sanitization of the equipment, is highly advised in the working area.

Procedure for reporting hazards

There are devised procedures for reporting hazards in the workplace.

1. Identification of hazard- hazard is first identified, including its primary source.
2. Notify management-this is done after identifying the hazard by approaching the management concerning g the hazard.
3. Implementation of corrective measures- measures taken by the management in order to terminate the hazard.
4. Hazard, documentation-the occurrence of the hazard, is recorded, and its day is also written.
5. Hazard review- this is to measure the effectiveness of the reporting system.

Examples of a food safety program

Examples of food safety programs are; hazard analysis, critical control points, which are the programs established when the hazard has been identified, monitoring procedures or programs for tracking the hazards in the workplace, and verification and record-keeping (Millstone, 2017).

Responsibilities

Every person has a responsibility in the workplace to ensure that the environment is clean by maintaining personal hygiene and keeping the equipment free from contamination.

Conclusion

Personal safety in the workplace is paramount in ensuring food safety and protecting one another from the disease caused by a lack of hygiene. It also ensures quality production and also customer satisfaction in the workplace. Food safety should be enhanced in the workplace.

References

Ghezzi, S., & Ayoun, B. (2021). Food safety in the US catering industry: empirical findings. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. https://www.findsmartresults.com/web?q=food%20safety%20and%20hygiene&o=1670

Jianu, C., & Goleţ, I. (2020). Knowledge of food safety and hygiene and personal hygiene practices among meat handlers operating in western Romania. Food Control, 42, 214-219.

Kamboj, S., Gupta, N., Bandral, J. D., Gandotra, G., & Anjum, N. (2020). Food safety and hygiene: a review. International Journal of Chemical Studies, 8(2), 358-368. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

Leibler, J. H., Nguyen, D. D., León, C., Gaeta, J. M., & Perez, D. (2017). Personal hygiene practices among urban homeless persons in Boston, MA. International Journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), 928. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

Millstone, E. (2017). Can food safety policy-making be both scientifically and democratically legitimated? If so, how?. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 20, 483–508. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

Moghnia, O. H., Rotimi, V. O., & Al-Sweih, N. A. (2021). Evaluating food safety compliance and hygiene practices of food handlers working in community and healthcare settings in Kuwait. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1586. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

Singer, B. E., & Endreny, P. (2019). Reporting hazards: Their benefits and costs. Journal of Communication, 37(3), 10-26. https://www.uniprint.com.au/blogs/news/why-it-s-important-to-report-hazards-in-the-workplace

Stringer, M. (2018). Summary report: Food safety objectives—role in microbiological food safety management. Food Control, 16(9), 775–794.

Thomann, E. (2018). Food safety policy: Transnational, hybrid, wicked. In Oxford research encyclopedia of Politics. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

Vidhubala Priskillal, M. (2019). A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge regarding Food Borne Diseases and Food Hygiene among the Mothers of Under Five Children in Selected Rural Areas (Doctoral dissertation, College of Nursing, Madras Medical College, Chennai). https://www.health.vic.gov.au/food-safety/personal-hygiene-for-food-handlers

World Health Organization. (2020). Food safety (No. EM/RC46/6).