§ 42 of the Infection Protection Act (Infektionsschutzgesetz, IfSG) sets out who may not work and may not be employed in certain areas. It protects customers. The rules are strict, because even a few germs in food can make many people ill.
Three groups of people
Under § 42 (1) IfSG the ban applies to people who
- are ill with or suspected of having typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, cholera, shigellosis, salmonellosis, another infectious gastroenteritis, or viral hepatitis A or E,
- have infected wounds or skin diseases through which germs can be passed on via food,
- excrete the germs shigella, salmonella, enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) or cholera vibrios.
On group 1: suspicion is enough. "Another infectious gastroenteritis" means contagious stomach and bowel infections caused by other germs, for example noroviruses, rotaviruses or campylobacter.
On group 3: anyone who excretes germs can be contagious without feeling ill. This is found by testing a stool sample. The ban applies even then.
Where does the ban apply?
The people concerned may not work or be employed
- in the production, treatment or placing on the market of certain foods, if they come into contact with them, or
- in the kitchens of restaurants and other facilities with or for communal catering.
The same rule applies to people who handle articles of daily use (for example crockery, cutlery, chopping boards) in a way that germs could reach the food.
The nine groups of food (§ 42 (2) IfSG)
The law names these foods. Germs can multiply in them particularly easily:
- meat, poultry and products made from them
- milk and milk-based products
- fish, crustaceans or molluscs and products made from them
- egg products
- food for babies and infants
- ice cream and semi-finished ice cream products
- baked goods with a filling or topping that is not fully baked or heated through
- delicatessen salads, raw vegetable salads and potato salads, marinades, mayonnaises, other emulsified sauces, nutritional yeasts
- sprouts and seedlings for eating raw, and seeds for producing sprouts and seedlings for eating raw
The kitchens of restaurants and communal catering are covered regardless of this list.
Exceptions
The local health office (Gesundheitsamt) can allow exceptions to the bans if measures are taken that can prevent transmission (§ 42 (4) IfSG). Neither employers nor employees may set such an exception themselves.
EU law requires this too
EU Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 deals with personal hygiene in Annex II, Chapter VIII. People who suffer from a disease that can be transmitted through food, who carry such a disease, or who have, for example, infected wounds, skin infections or diarrhoea, may not handle food if contamination is possible. Those affected must report illnesses and symptoms to the food business operator without delay.
Staff of public authorities
People who deal with these foods in the exercise of a public office, for example during inspections or training, may also not carry out their activity if they have the diseases named (§ 42 (3) IfSG).
Key sentence
Ill, suspected of illness, or germs in the stool: stay away from unpackaged food and out of the kitchen.