Employee Hygiene Policy

The below-mentioned procedures must be adopted by all employees to ensure appropriate essential hygiene practices and the production of safe food products.

1. Hand Washing

Minimizes the amount of contamination transferred to food products. Proper hand-washing steps are:

Rinse hands
Apply soap
Scrub for 15-30 seconds
Rinse thoroughly
Dry with a paper towel

Hands Must Be Washed:

At the start of each shift (at start-up, after lunch and breaks)
After using the washroom or smoking
After blowing the nose, coughing, sneezing, etc.
After picking up product from the floor
Any time your hands become contaminated (touch dirty surfaces, garbage bins, etc.)
When entering the production floor from a less-clean area (e.g. outside or kill floor)

Using hand sanitizer DOES NOT replace proper hand-washing. Hand sanitizer is used following hand washing.

2. Cross-Contamination

Cross-Contamination is the transfer of harmful material from a dirty or less-clean area to a cleaner area (e.g. dirty knives contacting clean product). All employees must help stop cross-contamination. Some examples and sources of cross-contamination are:

Contacting floor/dirty surfaces/dirty equipment/inedible containers/pallets
Abscesses, faecal matter, stomach contents; and Condensation
Employees must stay in their designated work area
Wash boots and use footpaths when moving between zones

3. Clothing and Hair Restraints

Coats/smocks and protective footwear must be worn in all production areas
CUT FLOOR: white smocks
KILL FLOOR: blue wrapper or coveralls with aprons
OUTSIDE: red smocks
Wear a clean smock every day and change if it becomes contaminated
Keep hardhats clean. Clean with soap and water when they get dirty
Change coats if moving between production rooms
Do not wear production coats or aprons outside or in washrooms/lunchrooms
Do not store personal clothing/effects in production area
Wear hairnets and beard restraints in all production areas

4. Jewellery and Lose Items

No jewellery is allowed in production areas (this includes all facial and exposed body piercings and wedding rings)
jewellery is the only exception and must be tucked under clothing or a glove
Loose items, such as false nails/eyelashes and nail polish, are not permitted in production areas

5. Food

No food is permitted in production areas, including (but not limited to) food, drinks, chewing gum/tobacco, candy, lozenges and cigarettes
Leave medication in personal lockers and do not bring onto the production floor

6. Communicable Diseases and Injuries

Many illnesses can be passed to consumers through food (causing food poisoning)
Report communicable or gastrointestinal disease to your supervisor immediately. Examples of communicable diseases include:
Food poisoning (all kinds)
Salmonella
Gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestine)
Dysentery (severe diarrhoea often associated with blood in the faeces)
Typhoid (severe infection caused by Salmonella thyphosa)
Campylobacter
Hepatitis (the liver disease caused by a viral infection)
Listeria
Streptococcal infections (e.g. strep throat)
Giardia (stomach and intestinal disease caused by a parasite)

Symptoms of these diseases include diarrhea, fever, nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, dehydration and fatigue. Don’t let those employees infected with one of these diseases who work directly with food.

7. Cuts/Wounds

Cover all wounds with dressings and waterproof gloves. If product, equipment or tables become contaminated with human blood:

Wear gloves to clean up blood
Properly dispose of the contaminated product
Clean and sanitize all equipment and surfaces contaminated with blood before continuing production.