The most common source of germs in a business is the people who work there. Good personal hygiene is therefore the most important rule. Annex II, Chapter VIII of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 requires every person in a food handling area to maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and to wear suitable, clean work clothing, and protective clothing where necessary.
Washing your hands
Wash your hands always:
- before you start work and after every break,
- after going to the toilet,
- after contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, eggs and unprepared vegetables,
- after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, and after touching your face or hair,
- after handling waste, cleaning products or money,
- after eating, drinking or smoking,
- whenever your hands are visibly dirty, and before you change to another task.
This is the right way to do it:
- Hold your hands under running water and rub them with soap.
- Lather thoroughly for 20 to 30 seconds, including thumbs, between the fingers and under the fingernails. This is what the Federal Institute for Public Health (Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit, BIÖG, formerly BZgA) recommends on infektionsschutz.de.
- Rinse well.
- Dry with a clean single-use towel. Damp hands pass on germs especially easily.
- If possible, turn off the tap with the towel or with your elbow.
Wash your hands only at the handwash basin, not in the sink for dishes or vegetables. Wiping your hands on an apron or tea towel is not hygiene. Disinfectants only add to handwashing in places that the business has set for this. They do not replace it.
Clothing and appearance
- Wear clean work clothing and change it as soon as it is dirty.
- Wear a hairnet or cap if the business requires it.
- Do not put on work clothing on the way to and from work, and do not go to the toilet in it.
- Keep fingernails short and clean. No nail varnish and no false nails if the business does not allow them.
- Jewellery, watches and piercings can collect germs and fall into food as foreign bodies. Many businesses ban them in the work area. Follow your business's rules.
Wounds and plasters
- Cover small cuts and wounds with a waterproof plaster, if possible a coloured (blue) one. This makes a plaster easy to see in food.
- For wounds on the hands, also wear a clean glove.
- Infected wounds and skin diseases are a matter for your supervisors. With pus or inflammation you must not work with food (see below).
Gloves
Disposable gloves do not replace handwashing. Wash your hands before you put them on. Change gloves when you change task, when they tear or when you have touched something else, for example waste, money or your face.
Behaviour at work
- Do not cough or sneeze over open food.
- Do not keep touching your face or hair.
- Do not smoke, eat or drink in the work area, except in the places provided.
- Always use a clean spoon to taste, and do not dip it into the food again afterwards.
- Bags, jackets and private belongings do not belong on the work surface.
Illness: activity bans under section 42 IfSG
Under section 42 of the Infection Protection Act (IfSG), you must not work in the kitchens of restaurants and other facilities with or for communal catering, or when making, handling or placing certain foods on the market, if you
- are ill with, or suspected of having, typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, shigellosis, salmonellosis or another infectious gastroenteritis (stomach and bowel infection), or viral hepatitis A or E,
- have infected wounds or skin diseases in which germs can be passed on through food,
- excrete Shigella, Salmonella, EHEC or cholera vibrios, even without symptoms.
These foods include meat, poultry, milk and dairy products, fish, egg products, baby food, ice cream, delicatessen and potato salads, mayonnaise and sauces, and sprouts.
In individual cases the public health office may allow exceptions if protective measures work.
What does this mean for you? If you have diarrhoea, vomiting, fever or wounds with pus, tell your employer immediately. Section 43(2) IfSG obliges you to do so. The employer must then take the necessary measures under section 43(3) IfSG. Go back to work only when a doctor or the public health office and your employer allow it.
Instruction under section 43 IfSG
- Initial instruction: Before your first job you need a certificate from the public health office (or an appointed doctor). It may be at most three months old when you start work.
- Follow-up instruction: The employer instructs you after you start work and then every two years, and documents it.
- The employer keeps the certificate and the latest record of the follow-up instruction at the business.
This course does not replace these instructions.
Key points
- Wash your hands with soap for 20 to 30 seconds and dry them with a single-use towel.
- Gloves do not replace handwashing.
- Cover wounds with a blue, waterproof plaster.
- With diarrhoea, vomiting or wounds with pus, tell your employer immediately.