Safe Plates for Home Food Handlers Module 3

Safe Plates for Home Food Handlers Module 3: Personal Hygiene and Health

Case Study

What Happened February 2016, Raleigh, NC • Guests at a potluck Super Bowl party brought homemade buffalo chicken dip • Dip was left out for hours without any type of temperature control • Party host ate dip late at night while cleaning up and then woke up with stomach cramps and vomiting hours later

What They Found • Illness was caused by Staphylococcus aureus toxin • Party guests were seen “double dipping” and using their fingers to scoop dip onto chips • Dip was left out at room temperature for over four hours before the host ate it

Discussion How do you think the Staph bacteria got into the buffalo chicken dip? How could that have been prevented?

Learning Objectives • Identify the role of clean outer clothing, fingernails and jewelry in preventing food contamination and allergen cross-contact • Recognize where eating, drinking and tobacco use is allowed • Identify when, where and how to wash hands

Learning Objectives • Identify instances when bare hand contact with food is allowed • Identify adequate barriers to bare hand contact and how to use single-use gloves • Identify symptoms and illnesses that must be reported to a manager • Describe how to correctly cover an infected wound on the hands or forearms

Key Terms • Excluded food handler – symptoms or diagnosis dictate that food handler can’t work in food establishment • Reinstated food handler– symptoms have cleared so food handler is approved to work • Restricted food handler – symptoms dictate that food handler can’t work with or around food

Personal Hygiene Home Food Safety Mythbusters

Clothing and Hair • Wear clean clothing to prevent contamination of food and food-contact surfaces • Wear a clean apron and remove when leaving the kitchen • Remove all jewelry, with exception of a plain ring, from hands and arms while working • Hair shoulder length or longer should be pulled up • When preparing food in community settings, wear a hat or other hair covering

Hands • Hands transfer hazards very easily • Best practices for hand hygiene include: – Keeping fingernails clean and cut short – Covering cuts and sores on hands with a bandage – Washing hands frequently and properly will also prevent contamination

Taste Testing • Preventing contamination while tasting food is important • Food should not be tasted over pots, pans or serving containers • Methods – Use a disposable utensil to taste a dish or place a tasting portion in a small dish – Always take a step away to taste – Do not reuse tasting utensils

Other Hygiene Concerns • Avoid eating, drinking, chewing gum or using tobacco while preparing food • Keep personal items away from food while cooking

Proper Handwashing

How to Wash Hands 1. Wet hands and exposed parts of arms with warm water and soap 2. Rub soap into hands and arms for 10 -15 seconds 3. Rinse hands and arms with warm water Whole process should take 20 seconds 4. Dry hands and arms on disposable paper towel or electric dryer

Proper Handwashing

When to Wash Hands • Before – Starting to cook – Handling food • After – Handling raw food – Using bathroom – Coughing, sneezing, blowing nose • When – Touching tissue, hair, face – Switching between raw and cooked or RTE food – Cleaning and sanitizing – As frequently as – Removing garbage required to maintain – Touching money, phones clean hands and prevent and pets cross-contamination

Hand Sanitizers • Hand sanitizers are not a replacement for thorough and effective handwashing – Can be used after handwashing as a second step to decontaminate hands • Hand sanitizers do not remove dirt and soil, they just spread it around • Commonly-available, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not effective against all pathogens, including Norovirus

Bare Hand Contact

Preventing Bare Hand Contact • When preparing food in community settings it is important to take extra steps for food safety • Preventing bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods is one way to keep food safe when preparing for large groups • Methods to prevent bare hand contact include: – Single-use gloves – Serving utensils such as spoons, ladles and tongs – Single-use deli or bakery papers

Glove Use • Wear single-use gloves when handling all ready-to-eat foods, except washing produce • Always cover a bandaged wound with a single-use glove • Change gloves whenever switching from raw to ready-to -eat foods or switching from allergen to non-allergen foods

Reporting Illness and Injury

Reporting Symptoms and Illness • Sick people can very easily contaminate food and spread illness to other people • People shouldn’t prepare food for others when they have certain symptoms and illnesses

Restricted • If a food handler has the following symptoms they should not prepare food for others: – Sore throat with fever – Uncovered, infected cuts, wounds or lesions containing pus on the hand, wrist or other exposed body part – Persistent sneezing, coughing or runny nose that causes discharges from the eyes, nose or mouth • Food handlers can still be in the kitchen but shouldn’t handle food or food-contact surfaces

Covering Cuts and Wounds • Waterproof cover and single use glove if wound is on hand, finger or wrist • A waterproof cover on the arm • Dry, durable, tight fitting bandage on body

Excluded • If a food handler has the following symptoms they should not be around food: – Diarrhea – Vomiting – Jaundice – Sore throat and fever* • Symptoms from non-infectious conditions do not apply (e. g. , pregnancy, gastrointestinal syndromes, medications, etc. ) *excluded if serving highly susceptible population

Reportable Illnesses • Food handlers must be excluded if diagnosed with: – Hepatitis A virus – Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) – Norovirus – Salmonella species (Typhoid Fever and non-typhoidal) – Shigella species HENSS

Reportable Illnesses • Food handlers must also be excluded if: – Have had a recent illness from or lives in household with someone who has a reportable illness – Traveled within last 50 days to an area outside U. S. with an epidemic from a reportable illness – Food handler is suspected of causing or being exposed to confirmed illness outbreak • In restaurant and community settings, managers must report jaundice and/or diagnoses of the 5 illnesses to the regulatory authority

Returning to Food Handling • Must be symptom free for 24 hours • Need written clearance from a healthcare professional after diagnosis with reportable illness • Cuts and wounds must be healed or properly covered

Summary • • RESTRICT • • • EXCLUDE • • REINSTATE • Sore throat and fever* Open, infected cut/wound/boil Persistent sneezing, coughing or runny nose with discharge Vomiting Diarrhea Jaundice Confirmed diagnosis of: Hepatitis A, STEC, Norovirus, Salmonella species (Typhoid Fever and non-typhoidal), Shigella species Properly covered cut/wound/boil Symptom-free for 24 hours Confirmed cased of required reported illnesses require a doctor’s note

Discussion Proper personal hygiene and staying home when sick are the biggest ways to prevent spread of foodborne illness. Why do you think these things are so hard to get right?

Review • Personal hygiene best practices • Proper handwashing • Methods to prevent bare hand contact • Reporting illness symptoms and diagnoses