Level 4 · Part 2
Hygiene you can start with
Clean hands, clean surfaces, safe water, safe ingredients and protection from pests.
Food hygiene is what keeps customers from getting sick. It costs little to start and protects your reputation. The World Health Organization teaches five simple keys to safer food, which we explain here in our own words.
- Keep clean: wash hands before handling food and after using the toilet, and keep surfaces, tools and containers clean.
- Separate raw and cooked food: do not let raw materials touch finished product or its containers.
- Cook thoroughly: where your process includes heat, make sure the product is treated for long enough, and follow a method that has been checked.
- Keep food at safe temperatures: do not leave perishable food for long in warm places.
- Use safe water and safe raw materials: use clean water, and reject spoiled or contaminated ingredients.
Habits for the workplace
- People who are unwell should not handle food.
- Keep animals, pests and chemicals away from the processing area.
- Use separate clean containers for raw and finished product.
- Clean as you go, and have a cleaning routine that is written down and followed.
- Keep waste away from the food area and remove it regularly.
This is a start, not the rule book
These habits are the minimum. Registration, inspection and training requirements depend on your country and your product. Ask the food authority what applies to you before you sell.
Exercise 4.2 · A hygiene walk
- Walk through your workplace as if you were an inspector.
- Write what you see that is clean and what is not: hands, water, surfaces, tools, storage, waste, pests.
- Choose the three changes that would make the biggest difference and write who will do them and by when.
Background reading for this part:
- Five keys to safer food manual — World Health Organization (WHO), 2006
- Guidelines for small-scale fruit and vegetable processors (FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 127) — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Peter Fellows, 1997