Personal Hygiene and Handwashing
Personal hygiene and handwashing
This domain tests the handwashing procedure, when handlers must wash, when they must be excluded from work, how gloves and clothing are used, and how the person in charge manages illness reporting. Ontario expects handler behaviour to prevent contamination of ready-to-eat food, not just to look clean.
Core rules
- Wash hands with warm running water and liquid soap for at least 20 seconds: wet hands, lather, scrub palms, backs, between fingers and under nails, rinse, dry with a single-use paper towel, and use the towel to turn off the tap.
- Wash before starting work and handling food, and after using the washroom, handling raw meat or eggs, touching the face or hair, coughing or sneezing, handling garbage, cleaning, handling money or phones, and between raw and ready-to-eat tasks.
- Hand sanitizer is not a substitute for handwashing when hands are visibly soiled or after using the washroom.
- No bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food: use tongs, deli paper, scoops, or gloves. Gloves are single-use, changed when torn or between tasks, and never washed and reused.
- Wear clean outer clothing, restrain hair, keep nails short and clean, and remove jewellery from hands and arms. Cover cuts with a waterproof bandage and a glove or finger cot.
- Exclude workers with vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, fever with sore throat, or an infected wound on the hand. Report these symptoms to the person in charge; some illnesses require medical clearance and public health notification.
Worked example
A cook develops diarrhea during a shift, washes hands, puts on gloves, and continues making sandwiches. The gloves do not make the task safe. Diarrhea may be caused by norovirus, Salmonella, or E. coli, and gloves can leak or be contaminated during removal. The cook must stop handling food, report to the person in charge, and be excluded until symptom-free for the period required by the local public health unit. Sandwiches made during the symptomatic period should be discarded.
Traps
- Gloves create a false sense of security; they are not a substitute for handwashing.
- A quick rinse is not handwashing.
- A worker with a 24-hour flu can still transmit norovirus.
- Nail polish and artificial nails are restricted because they can harbour bacteria.