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Importance of personal hygiene in the food plant

Article · October 2020

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Mahendra Pal
Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology Anand India
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 Processing Industry
Importance of personal hygiene in the food plant
Mahendra Pal and Anubha Priyabandhu
Narayan Consultancy on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology,
4 Aangan, Jagnath Ganesh Dairy Road,Anand-388001,India
Mohan Nagar, Lane 5, WZ 101/10, Pankha Road, New Delhi-110046, India
Corresponding author: Email: palmahendra2@gmail.com
P
ersonal hygiene is an important
component of public health,
and includes all the protective
measures, which influence
the health and well being of
an individual (Pal, 2007). Good health
is essential for the persons working in
the food establishments. Therefore, it is
very important that all food industries
must employee only the healthy persons
to work. All the workers in food industry
should wear clean protective clothing.
Persons engaged in handling of foods
should be subjected to regular health
checks in accordance with provisions of
public health laws (Pal and Mahendra,
2015). It is advised that staff shall be
compulsorily inoculated against the
enteric group of diseases once a year
per schedule and a record towards that
shall be kept for inspection. In case of an
epidemic, all workers should be vaccinated
irrespective of the yearly scheduled
vaccination.
30
Food handler is a person who directly
engages in the handling of packed or
unpacked food, food utensils, equipment
or who handles surfaces likely to come
into contact with food for a food business
(Pal and Mahendra, 2015). According to
the World Health Organization, unsafe
food is responsible for 600 million cases
and 420, 000 deaths each year globally
(WHO, 2020).
It is mentioned that food handlers
can transmit many diseases, which
include typhoid fever, amoebiasis,
giardiasis, colibacillosis, shigellois,
rotaviral gastroenteritis, tuberculosis,
staphylococcal infection, diphtheria,
paratyphoid fever, Norovirus
gastroenteritis, steptococcosis,
staphylococcal infectious hepatitis and
others (Pal, 2007; Pal and Mahendra 2015;
Pal, 2018; Pal and Ayele, 2020), Hence, it is
essential that food handlers must maintain
a high degree of personal cleanliness.
Food & Drink Industry | SEPTEMBER 2020
The food business shall provide to all
food handlers with adequate and suitable
clean protective clothing, head covering,
face musk, gloves, and footwear; and
the food business shall ensure that the
food handlers at work wear only clean
protective clothes, head covering, and
footwear every day. The worker having
any cut or wounds or purulent skin
lesions should not come in direct contact
with food or food contact surfaces. It
is advised that the wound should be
properly covered with antiseptic dressing.
The person suffering from an infectious
disease that may be transmitted through
food shall not be allowed to enter into
any food processing area. The workers
suffering from respiratory diseases should
not be allowed to handle butter; and are
advised to wear gloves and face marks.
Food handlers shall refrain themselves
from coughing spitting, sneezing, smoking,
chewing, eating, and drinking in food
service areas. The workers are advised to
trim their nails and hair periodically; and
also not to wear watches, rings, bangles,
jewelry, pins, and other items that pose a
threat to the safety and suitability of food.
It is pertinent to mention that handlers
must always wash their hands properly
with soap and clean potable water,
disinfect their hands and then dry them
with hand drier or clean cloth towel or
disposable paper at the start of food
handling activities, immediately after
using the toilet, and after handling raw
food or any contaminated material, tools,
equipment or work surface, where this
could result in contamination of other food
items. Further, repeated hand washing is
compulsory during work period whenever
raw food, soiled utensils, cleaning tools or
other contaminated items are

handled. After eating, drinking, nose
blowing, smoking, toilet using, employees
must properly wash their hands before
returning to work. In order to prevent
cross contamination, it is very essential to
avoid common use of soap and towel in the
washroom. As organisms often hide along
and under the nails, it is therefore, crucial
to use a nail brush to properly clean the
nails. Since hair may be contaminated with
the microbe, hence, touching and itching
of head should be avoided as hair may fall
in food. All the employees of food industry
should wear suitable hair cover, and use
disposable gloves if possible (Pal and
Mahendra, 2015).
Awareness should be created among
food handlers to maintain food safety and
personal hygiene during the preparation
of food in the plant. Food handlers should
inculcate healthy habits of frequent
washing of hands before handling the food.
Proper personal hygiene must be strictly
followed by the workers in the food service
SEPTEMBER 2020 | ISSUE 8 | VOL 1
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enterprise for the safety of the product
that is consumed by the people. It is
emphasized that persons working in food
industries should receive right training
in proper food handling techniques and
food protection principles; and should be
informed of the danger of poor personal
hygiene and unsanitary practices. Such
measures are vital from food safety
point of view to protect the health of the
consumer. As food safety is global public
health issue, it is therefore, important
that food must be protected from getting
contaminated by taking all the necessary
precautions in food industries (Pal, 2013).
Therefore, personal hygiene plays a key
role in providing a safe, wholesome, and
hygienic food to the people for their safety
aginst any infection or intoxication.
Acknowledgement
The author is highly is highly grateful to
Prof.Dr.R.K.Narayan for going through the
manuscript.
Processing Industry
References
Pal, M. 2007. Zoonoses. Second Edition.
Satyam Publishers, Jaipur, India.
Pal, M. 2013. Food safety is becoming a
global public health concern.The Ethiopian
Herald .February 01, 2013, P.8.
Pal, M. 2018. Rotavirus gastroenteritis:
A life threatening viral disease of global
significance. CPQ Microbiology 1: 1-3.
Pal, M. 2020. Amoebiasis: an important
foodborne disease of global public health
concern. Archieves of Nutrition and Public
Health 2: 1-3.
Pal, M. and Ayele, Y. 2020. Emerging role
of foodborne viruses in public health.
Biomedical Research International 5: 1-4.
Pal, M. and Mahendra, R. 2015.Sanitation
in Food Establishments. First Edition.
LAMBERT Academic Publishing,
Saarbruchen, Germany.
WHO .2020. Food safety. Key facts. 30 April,
2020. World Health Organization , Geneva,
Switzerland.
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