Basic rules and norms of personal hygiene of the cook

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Cook's lack of personal hygiene is often the cause of many cases of food poisoning in catering establishments. Therefore, the owners of eateries, cafes and restaurants need to establish constant monitoring to ensure that employees comply with sanitary standards and treat the cooking process with all responsibility.

This article will talk about the basic rules of personal hygiene of the cook and the existing medical requirements for the admission of such a worker to the kitchen. The article will also describe how sanitary control over compliance with these rules is established.

Basic personal hygiene rules for a cook

To avoid negative consequences and prevent food poisoning in a catering establishment, the chef must follow the rules of personal hygiene.

1. Kitchen workers should thoroughly wash and dry their hands before handling food. Hand washing should be repeated regularly throughoutbusiness day.
2. Dry your hands with a clean towel, disposable paper towels or dry under a dryer. Do not use rags, an apron, etc. for these purposes.
3. It is forbidden for a cook to chew gum at the workplace, to eat food in the process of cooking. For lunch, cooks should be given a separate place in the kitchen.
4. Do not cough or sneeze over food while cooking.
5. The cook must wear clean protective clothing (jacket, pants, apron, cap, gloves, etc.).
6. Cooks are prohibited from storing spare clothing and other personal items (including mobile phones) near food storage and preparation areas. A special place must be reserved for personal belongings (cloakroom, personal locker, etc.).
7. Cooks should always have long hair tied up and kept under a cap.
8. Nails should be short.
9. You should avoid wearing jewelry.
10. If the cook has a small wound (cut, burn, etc.), which he received the day before or during the working day, it must be completely covered with a band-aid.
11. In the kitchen, work with food should only be done with disposable rubber gloves, which should be changed as often as possible.
12. If a chef feels unwell during the working day, he must immediately report this to the management in order to prevent the possible spread of viral and infectious diseases within the establishment.

In general, following these guidelines in the workplace is easy. With a responsible approach, theyminimize possible cases of poisoning.

Medical examinations

Sanitary requirements and the personal hygiene of a cook are inseparable from each other. So, a kitchen worker should always monitor not only how he washed his hands or which way he sneezed, but also his general state of he alth.

According to Russian regulations, chefs must:

• 1 once a year to undergo examinations for confirmation or absence of diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, various intestinal infections;
• 2 times a year to be examined for confirmation or absence of gonorrhea, various sexually transmitted and dermatological diseases.

Data on examinations and consultations must be entered in a personal sanitary book. All these measures are necessary in order to prevent the occurrence of epidemics and the spread of serious infectious diseases.

Supervisory oversight

In order to monitor the personal hygiene of chefs, employees of the sanitary and epidemiological service have the right (under applicable law) to conduct inspections and detect violations.

There are a number of requirements for the working conditions of cooks: their appearance, he alth status, etc., which are guided by the regulatory authorities. To prevent their violation, the head of the catering establishment should carefully study them and familiarize cooks and other kitchen workers with them.