FOOD HYGIENE – THE BASIC REQUIREMENT OF FOOD BUSINESS

Food Hygiene is a series practices for preventing food borne illness, food borne injury and food borne spoilage.    It is a basic requirement for every food business owner or manager to implement while running food businesses.  Without food hygiene application, food business owners would face risks in business sustainability. 

Food hygiene practices emphasize on personal hygiene of every food handler, the cleanliness of equipment and the environment.  Customers will be impressed when they see clean facilities and nice-set, clean equipment as they move in.  Well-trained food handlers would know on how to have good personal hygiene.  With this service quality, they would be able prepare clean and delicious food that customers enjoy with peace of mind.    

Proper food handling will prevent food wastage. For example, when food is contaminated by flies, dirty hands, or even with the detergent, food handler should throw away the food in order to avoid food poisoning. Well, think about the amount of food waste. It’s a cost. However, if food handlers practicing food hygiene, they avoid the wastage.

When customer feel good about the environment, the food handlers and the food, this would build customers trust and royalty because they had a great experience dining here. Customers are more willing to dine in at a clean café where food hygiene is in place then at dirty café.  The personal hygiene and the food handling of food handlers would count too.  

Implementing food hygiene at workplace would develop personal growth in food handlers.  While they are learning to handling food correctly, they are also building a good habit in handling food at their home.  So, it will improve their concern about food safety.  

Customers love good food. But customers also expect clean premise, good service and hygiene food each time they visit the food premise. So, food hygiene should be strictly adhered in food premise.      

  

WHAT IS FOOD POISONING?

Food poisoning is a sickness that causing patients suffer of vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and other symptoms.   Man suffers of food poisoning due to consuming contaminated food.  Some people recovered from food poisoning soon but some people die of food poisoning. 

There are 3 kinds of food contaminations - Physical, chemical and microbiology contamination. Physical contamination occurs when food is contaminated with thing which we can see, such as hair, pest, staples, button, accessories etc.  Some physical substance carrying microbe and contaminate the food too.  For instance, when human hair dropped on the food, the hair, it is likely the food would be also be contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus.  Chemical contamination occurs when the food is stained by chemical like detergent, pesticide, sanitizers or any other chemical. Microbiological contamination is the contamination with microbes (living things which we can see only with microscope). Bacteria is one of the common microbes that causing food contamination.  

Our body has immunity system that can protect ourselves from any harmful inhaled substances. This system responses to contaminants by resulting vomiting, diarrhoea and fever in order to remove the contaminant from the body.   These reactions help to clean the body condition.  However, in some cases, people suffer serious condition or even died of food poisoning.  For example, people will get Typhoid infection when they consumed food which is contaminated by Salmonella typii. These bacteria will cause intestine inflammation and the patient would die if no immediate medication.  People with low immunity, like pregnant women, patients, old folks and kids are likely to suffer serious food poisoning when they consume contaminated food.  Other than vomit, diarrhoea, fever, there is other food poisoning symptoms including nausea, constipation, no appetite, weak and so on.  

Food poisoning case will result huge negative impact in food business. When health officers received report that many customers suffered food poisoning as the result of consuming contaminated food, the health officers will initiate investigation. They had the right to take samples on the suspected food and send to government designed laboratories for food safety analysis. When the laboratory results confirmed the food is contaminated, the officers will take legal actions against food owners. The officer would also, cited Section 11 of Food Act 1983, to order food business owner to stop operating food business for a period of not exceeding 14 days, if they checked the premise is dirty, especially when there is pest infestation in the kitchen. This would probably ruin the business reputation. 

Maintaining clean food premise and leading food handlers’ team to prepare and handling food correctly are the good initiatives to prevent food poisoning. Every food handler plays important roles in the business.  Therefore, it is essential to organize trainings for food handlers.  Weekly meeting, review and routine check on food handling helps to improve food hygiene and food safety of the food business. 

Food poisoning is a serious incident that could cause business loss.  The food handler team should have awareness about it. When every food handler is familiar and practicing correct food handling, such incident can be avoid. 

             

Jacky Chung
Food Handling course trainer
JACKYZ SOLUTION