Sanitation Standards

1. Requirements for food processing or handling premises

The most important global standard for anybody involved along the food value chain, is the Codex Alimentarius, which a collection of harmonised international food standards, guidelines and codes of practice, put together jointly by the FAO and the WHO. You can download the chapter on food hygiene under resources.

Legislation for the hygiene and safety standards for food processing or handling premises is usually modelled after the HACCP concept, which we covered in lesson 14.

Contamination can be caused in many ways, e.g. by condensation, foot traffic, hygiene of the plant and its employees, and breached protocols, among other things. Therefore, hygiene is looked at from 3 different aspects: firstly, hygiene within the premises, this concerns the building, secondly product hygiene, which concerns the production or handling procedures, and lastely, personal hygiene, which covers cleanliness of staff members and their clothing.

In accordance with the findings of the hazzard analysis, each processor must develop a hygiene and cleaning protocol, which defines the cleaning method, frequency and names of the responsible staff member for each area, piece of equipment, etc. Staff members need to be trained on sufficient cleaning methods and cleaning standards need to be monitored frequently.