Personal Hygiene

Personal Hygiene

In our topic Food Hazards, you've learned that food-borne diseases are caused by bacteria. In this page, you will learn that bacteria that caused food-borne disease is caused by food workers who spread bacteria.
Contamination is explained in food hazards as harmful substances which is not supposed to be in food. But in this topic, we'll talk about cross-contamination.

Cross Contamination

Some Contamination like Cross Contamination, occurs before we recieve the food we order. Cross Contamination means transferring of substances to a food from another food or another surface, such as equipment, tablesor hands.I listed some situations in which cross-contamination occurs.

1. Mixing contaminated leftovers with freshly cooked batch of food.
2. Handling ready-to-eat foods with unclean hands.
3. Handling several kinds of food without washing hands in between.
4. Cutting raw chicken, then using the same cutting board, unsanitized, to cut vegetables.
5. Placing ready-to-eat foods on a lower refrigerator shelf and allowing juices from raw fish or meat to drip onto them from an upper shelf.
6. Wiping work table with soiled cloth.

For food workers, good Personal Hygiene is very important. Because we have bacteria in our body all over our skin, nose, mouth or hands. If these bacteria grow in foods, people who will recieve the food will get ill.

Some personal hygiene tips before working in the kitchen:

1. Do not work with food if you have any communicable disease or infection.
2. Bathe or shower daily.
3. Wear clean uniforms or aprons.
4. Keep hair neat and clean. Always wear hat or hairnet.
5. Keep mustaches and beards trimmed and clean.
6. Wash hands and exposed parts of arms before work and as often as necessary during work, including:

After eating, drinking, or smoking.

After using the toilet

After touching or handling anything that may be contaminated with bacteria

7. Cover coughs and sneazes, then wash hands.
8. Keep your hands away from you face, eyes, hair and arms.