4. Personal hygiene
4.2. Protective clothing
The choice of protective clothing
depends on the working conditions. Firstly, protective clothing has to
protect workers from safety hazards, like harmful chemicals that could
come into skin or eye contact, slippery, wet floors, sharp knifes or
other blades, etc. To provide optimum protection it is important that
workers know how to wear the protective items properly, and that worn
out protective clothing is repaired or replaced in good time.
Protective clothing should be
well-fitting and comfortable to wear as not to tire out or distract
workers unnecissarily, as this could increase the risk for accidents.
Loves and aprons need to provide sufficient protection but must not
hamper the task at hand or get entangled with moving machine parts.
Secondly, protective
clothing is meant to protect food from contamination. As such, it must
also be ensured that the protective clothing does not become a source of
contamination in itself. Therefore, protective clothing must never be
worn outside the production area. At the end of a shift or after
soiling, waterproof clothing should be wiped down with antibacterial
wipes or cleaned in washing
machines to ensure a thorough and deep clean. Fabric clothing needs to
be washed on high temperatures with biological detergents, which break
down organic residues. The production site shoudl be set up in such a
way that workers receive fresh protective clothing on their way to the
changing rooms and return it after their shift for washing.
Materials
for protective clothing need to be selected for their durability that
ensures that no parts of the clothing or gloves get rubbed off and enter
the food.
