About food handlers
Your checklist for good hygiene practice.
- Wash and dry your hands thoroughly after going to the toilet and before handling food
- Do not handle food if you are suffering from diarrhoea and/or vomiting
- Tell your boss if you or anyone in your household is ill
- Tell your boss if you have infected cuts or sores
- Use bright coloured waterproof coverings for cuts and grazes
- Do not spit, smoke, eat or chew gum when you are handling food
- Make sure your work clothes are clean
- Keep your workplace, especially surfaces and utensils, clean
- Tell your boss if you were ill while on holiday
- If you have to visit the doctor, remember to say you are a food handler
Your responsibilities as a food handler
You can pass on germs when you handle food. To prevent this you must:
- Always wash your hands
- Tell your boss if you are unwell
- Wash your hands thoroughly using warm water and soap after using the toilet anywhere, before starting work and after a break, after handling raw food and after handling rubbish.
Tell your boss if...
- You have been sick (vomiting)
- You have diarrhoea
- You have infected sores or cuts (red, swollen, pus containing)
- You feel unwell
- You were ill while on holiday
- If anyone in your household is sick, or has diarrhoea
If you have sickness or diarrhoea it may be caused by a germ; you must not handle food until you are better. Typhoid and paratyphoid fever are rare but serious illnesses. You must tell your boss if you think you have been in contact with either of these diseases.