Dear Jean,
One of the most effective way to prevent the moustaches or beard fallen to our food is by shave it. However, I guess not everyone is willing to shave their moustache and beard (beliefs is the most resolute reason). So IMO, the effective way is to cover it by using masker, that can fully cover moustache and beard.
About the eye lashes/brows.. I think the probability for that part of ours to fall and contaminate our products is very low, and I dont think it will cause a high severity... But just in case, if your product is highly sensitive to microbial growth, then I recommend to use the protective goggles (but I think this is more appropriate for the pharmaceutical).
As for the rubbing and touching our bodies... I guess its obviously not allowed, its a mandatory needs from GMP. Thats why we make compulsory thing such as wearing gloves when contact to foods, and I guess no one willing to rub their eyes when using gloves.
To Esther: I think it would be churlish if we apply "Double Standard" on a food factory. It will create amusing atmosphere, and all the employee will scrutinize every single "space" in our system to break free from GMP rules.
Regards,
Arya
Dear Jean,
One of the most effective way to prevent the moustaches or beard fallen to our food is by shave it. However, I guess not everyone is willing to shave their moustache and beard (beliefs is the most resolute reason). So IMO, the effective way is to cover it by using masker, that can fully cover moustache and beard.
About the eye lashes/brows.. I think the probability for that part of ours to fall and contaminate our products is very low, and I dont think it will cause a high severity... But just in case, if your product is highly sensitive to microbial growth, then I recommend to use the protective goggles (but I think this is more appropriate for the pharmaceutical).
As for the rubbing and touching our bodies... I guess its obviously not allowed, its a mandatory needs from GMP. Thats why we make compulsory thing such as wearing gloves when contact to foods, and I guess no one willing to rub their eyes when using gloves.
To Esther: I think it would be churlish if we apply "Double Standard" on a food factory. It will create amusing atmosphere, and all the employee will scrutinize every single "space" in our system to break free from GMP rules.
Regards,
Arya
Dear Arya, Thanks for your feedback. We do not recruit any food handler with a beard and it is clearly stated that moustaches should be trimmed or preferably the person has to be clean shaven and clean uniform with head gears to be worn etc… to avoid any chance of contamination.
Any facial hair (including eyelashes and eye brows) is like any hair and not forgetting the hair from the nose which can fall in and is inevitable. But here we have to consider the risk and I have not heard of any hair in food leading to food borne disease either. The use of masks would be ideal and relevant in a pharmaceutical or manufacturing industry.
The skin has 2 kinds of micro-organisms namely resident and transient. It is not possible to remove all the resident organisms by a hand wash and most of the resident flora does not cause any illness. S. aureus is the only one which can cause food poisoning. Most of the healthy individuals do not have S. aureus on their skin (until the skin is damaged or bruised and mostly found in the anterior the nose) and S.epidermidis is the one found in large numbers. It is generally considered safe to consume 1000 S. aureus per gram of food and it requires 1 million per gram to result in sufficient amount of exotoxins to produce the illness.
I agree rubbing or touching any part of the body during food handling is not allowed and has to be followed by a hand wash. But, I do not agree to the point, that wearing gloves will avoid / reduce the contamination. Gloves can lead to contamination if the person handles several things and does not change it frequently. There are chances for gloves to have pin holes or any defects which can allow micro-organisms from the hands to come onto the glove surface and can result in contamination. The hand washing frequency during wearing gloves will be less compared to bare hands as the staffs do not feel their hands are soiled or dirty. Hand washing is more important and yes, before and after wearing gloves. People can still rub their eyes with their hands while wearing gloves (not with their palms) and it is a normal instinct. That’s the reason why we train staff on good handling and hygiene practices at work.
Edited by Jean, 25 July 2008 - 06:33 AM.