Kenya Food Handler Certificate key terms

Any person who directly touches food, food-contact surfaces, or food packaging as part of their work, including cooks, servers, bakers, butchers, and cleaners of food areas.

A document confirming a food handler has been medically examined and cleared to work with food, usually issued after stool and physical checks for communicable disease.

A person who continues to shed Salmonella Typhi in their stool or urine long after recovering from illness, and who can infect others if allowed to handle food.

Someone who carries and can spread a foodborne pathogen without showing any symptoms, making routine medical screening and strict hand hygiene essential in food premises.

The practice of washing hands with soap and clean running water, drying them properly, and using hand sanitiser where appropriate, especially before handling food and after using the toilet.

Temporarily removing a food handler from duties involving food when they have vomiting, diarrhoea, infected wounds, or another condition that could contaminate food.

The decision, usually based on symptom-free time or medical advice, that a previously excluded food handler may resume handling food without risk to consumers.

The everyday habits of a food handler, including bathing, clean clothing, tied-back hair, short clean nails, no jewellery, and covering cuts, that keep the body from contaminating food.

Clean outer garments such as aprons, hairnets, caps, and where needed gloves or footwear, worn to stop street clothes, hair, and skin from contacting food.

Sickness caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins, or chemicals, often producing vomiting, diarrhoea, or fever.

Acute illness, commonly with nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea, that follows eating contaminated food; in Kenya it is a notifiable condition in many settings.

A disease that health workers and food premises must report to public health authorities, such as cholera or typhoid, so outbreaks can be investigated and controlled quickly.

The presence in food of harmful microorganisms, chemicals, foreign objects, or other unwanted substances that make it unsafe or unfit to eat.

The transfer of harmful microorganisms from raw food, hands, equipment, or surfaces to ready-to-eat food, often through shared chopping boards, knives, or cloths.

Food that is eaten without further cooking or washing, such as cooked meats, salads, bread, and fruit, and which therefore must never contact raw food or dirty surfaces.

The temperature range, roughly 5°C to 60°C, in which bacteria multiply fastest; food should be kept below 5°C or above 60°C to stay safe.

The unbroken sequence of refrigeration, cold storage, and cold transport that keeps perishable food at or below safe chilled temperatures from purchase to service.

Regularly checking and recording fridge, freezer, and cooking temperatures with a probe or thermometer to confirm food is stored and cooked within safe limits.

The internal heat a food must reach to kill pathogens, commonly at least 70°C for meat and poultry, checked with a clean probe thermometer at the thickest part.

Warming previously cooked food quickly to a safe internal temperature, usually at least 70°C, and serving it once only rather than cooling and reheating repeatedly.

Any building, stall, vehicle, or place where food is prepared, stored, sold, or served to the public, including kitchens, restaurants, hotels, and market stands.

The permit issued by a local public health authority allowing a food premises to operate after inspection confirms it meets hygiene, water, sanitation, and staffing requirements.

The government body, such as a county public health department or ministry office, responsible for inspecting food premises, enforcing hygiene rules, and controlling outbreaks.

An official visit in which an inspector checks a food premises for cleanliness, safe water, pest control, correct storage, staff health records, and general compliance with regulations.

Water that is safe to drink and to use in food preparation and cleaning, free from harmful microorganisms and chemicals, and available in adequate supply with proper drainage.

The systems and practices for managing waste, sewage, and wastewater safely, together with cleaning and disinfection, so that dirt and germs do not reach food.

The two-step process of removing visible dirt and grease with detergent and water, then treating surfaces with a disinfectant to reduce microorganisms to safe levels.

Any surface that food touches directly, such as chopping boards, knives, plates, worktops, and food containers, which must be cleaned and disinfected regularly.

The safe removal and storage of food scraps, packaging, and other refuse in covered, pest-proof bins, kept away from food areas and emptied regularly.

Measures that prevent and remove rodents, insects, and other pests from food premises, including proofing openings, screening windows, and keeping food covered and areas clean.

Keeping food in suitable conditions, such as covered containers, off the floor, separated raw from cooked, and at correct temperatures, to prevent spoilage and contamination.

The information printed on food packages, including name, ingredients, allergens, and dates, that helps handlers and consumers store and use food safely.

The date after which a food should not be sold or eaten because its safety or quality may no longer be guaranteed; expired stock must be removed and discarded.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points: a systematic approach that identifies food safety hazards, sets control points, and monitors them to prevent illness rather than react to it.

A step in food preparation, such as cooking or chilling, where a specific control measure must be applied to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a food safety hazard to an acceptable level.

The instruction in hygiene, safe food handling, and health responsibilities that food handlers must complete, often through a recognised certificate programme, before or while working.

Two or more linked cases of similar illness resulting from eating the same contaminated food, which must be investigated to find the source and stop further spread.