HYGIENE AND SANITATION IN FOOD SECTOR

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOOD HYGIENE

 identify the essential principles of food hygiene applicable throughout the food
chain (including primary production through to the final consumer), to achieve the goal
of ensuring that food is safe and suitable for human consumption;
 recommend a HACCP-based approach as a means to enhance food safety;
 indicate how to implement those principles; and
 provide a guidance for specific codes which may be needed for - sectors of the food
chain; processes; or commodities; to amplify the hygiene requirements specific to those
areas.

They provide the basis for food hygiene and lay a firm foundation for the development of an
effective HACCP or equivalent system. The application of the general principles and of good
manufacturing practices (GMPs) allows the producer to operate within environmental
conditions favourable to the production of safe food.

Because food hygiene is best regulated at the production and processing stage in the exporting
country, the Codex Committee's main outputs have been codes of hygienic practice rather than
end-product microbiological standards.

PERSONAL HYGIENE

Personal hygiene begins at home, with the essential elements for good hygiene being a clean
body, clean hair and clean clothing.

Hair in food can be a source of both microbiological and physical contamination. Hairnets and
beard covers should be worn to assure food product integrity. Long-sleeved smocks should be
worn to cover arm hair.

Clean uniforms, aprons and other outer garments that are put on after the employee gets to
work can help minimize contamination. While working, clothing should be kept reasonably
clean and in good repair.

No jewelry is to be worn because it may fall into the product, it can present a safety hazard and
it cannot be adequately sanitized against bacterial transmission. It should be removed prior to
entering the processing facility.

Employees must wear different colored smocks when going from a raw processing part of the
establishment to the cooked processing side. They should also step into a sanitizer footbath
between the two processing areas to eliminate the bacteria on their shoes.

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 No employee who is affected with, has been exposed to, or is a carrier of a communicable
disease, the flu or a respiratory problem, or any other potential source of microbiological
contamination shall work in any area where there is a reasonable possibility that food or food
ingredients can be contaminated.

Employees must wash and sanitize their hands thoroughly in a hand-washing facility before
starting work, especially if the employee has direct contact with food. The hands should also be
washed after each absence from the work area, after visiting the restrooms, after eating,
drinking, smoking, chewing gum, chewing tobacco, coughing, using a handkerchief or tissue
and any other times when hands have become soiled or contaminated.

Consumption of food, drink, smoking or tobacco use is permitted only in authorized areas.

Hands and fingernails must be kept clean. Fingernails should be short and absent of fingernail
polish or false fingernails.

Cuts or burns on the food worker’s hands should be thoroughly bandaged, and covered with
clean gloves.

The use of gloves often creates a false sense of security but does not eliminate the need for
hand washing and when necessary, sanitizing. Improperly used gloves may become a vehicle
for spreading pathogens.

Under no circumstances should a live or dead rodent be touched.

HYGIENE PRACTICES FOR EQUIOMENT

Follow these tips to keep your kitchen free of germs and avoid getting food poisoning:

 Wipe down the surfaces thoroughly with warm water and washing up liquid, or antibacterial
spray, both before and after you’ve finished preparing any food.

 Keep the hobs on your stove clean by wiping off any spills as soon as possible and scrape off
anything burnt onto them with a plastic scraper. The surfaces of hobs are susceptible to
scratches, so don’t use anything abrasive to clean them – a dishcloth or sponge is fine. Your
basic oven cleaner should be ok for removing most stains.

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 Empty the bins in the kitchen before they overflow, otherwise you’ll be encouraging rodents to
move in! If you are able to, recycle all your plastic, glass and cardboard.

 Do the washing up after every meal – if you can, soak and wash pots and pans as you prepare
your meal. This way, you only have to clean the plate(s) and cutlery you used to eat your food
with afterwards.

 Always wash your hands before you start preparing a meal, and afterwards too, especially if
you’ve been handling raw meat.

 Any cooked leftovers should be kept in the fridge and eaten within 2 days. Make sure they're
heated through properly when you eat them, and don’t reheat anything that’s been frozen.

 As well as cleaning out your fridge and freezer with soap and water, make sure you throw away
any items that look like they might have gone off or are well past their use by date.

 Throw your tea towels in the wash a couple of times a week to stop bacteria growing on them.

Fridge

 Take out the shelves and any compartments in the fridge once a month and wash them with
soap and warm water. Rinse and dry them before putting back.

 The inside of the fridge can be wiped down with a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and water.
Make sure to wipe down the outside of the fridge too, especially the handle!

 Once or twice a year, pull the fridge out and vacuum the cooling elements at the back. This will
make your fridge more efficient.

Freezer

 When ice starts building up in the freezer, you will need to defrost it. Take out all the items
and put them in cool bags (or ideally, borrow someone else’s freezer space for a little while!).

 Put a bowl of hot water inside to help the ice thaw, and once it starts melting, chisel out all the
ice with an ice scraper (or can just leave it to melt on its own, but this will take longer). Make
sure you've put down some newspaper or towels to soak up all the water!

 Once all the ice is gone, take out all the shelves and compartments and wash them in warm
soapy water. Rinse and replace.

 Once or twice a year, pull the freezer out and vacuum the cooling elements at the back to make
the appliance more efficient.

Oven

 Wipe out the oven with a cloth and warm water after every use. It might seem tedious, but it's
important if you want to avoid a horribly dirty oven that you then have to attack with chemicals.

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 If your oven does happen to become particularly dirty, mix a thick paste of bicoarbonate of
soda, smear it all over the oven and leave it to do its stuff overnight. In the morning, get a
scourer and some warm water and scrub away all the dirt with a good bit of elbow grease!

Sink

 Try to wipe down the sink at least once a day. Disinfect it every week by filling it up with warm
water and a small amount of bleach. Scrub it round with a scourer afterwards, not forgetting the
plug chain and the inside of the plug.

It won’t take long to follow these simple rules, and will lead to a healthier time in the kitchen.
Try to arrange a cleaning rota with your fellow students so the chores are equally shared, and
all the cleaning isn’t left up to one or two people.

CLEANING AND DISINFECTION

Cleaning, accomplished with soap–or detergent–and water, refers to the physical removal of
dirt and grime, and in the process, some portion of the germs on a given surface. Sometimes
cleaning tools, including sponges and cloths, simply move germs from one surface to another.

Disinfecting, on the other hand, refers to killing a high percentage of the germs on a surface or
rendering them incapable of reproducing. Sanitizing is another relevant term in this discussion.
Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on surfaces to a safe level, as judged by public health
standards or requirements. The process works by either cleaning or disinfection to reduce the
risk of spreading infection. Finally, sterilizing destroys all forms of microbial life and is used
mainly in healthcare and laboratory settings.

WASTE MANAGEMENT
It is all the activities and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final
disposal.This includes amongst other things, collection, transport, treatment and disposal
of waste together with monitoring and regulation. It also encompasses the legal and regulatory
framework that relates to waste management encompassing guidance on recycling etc.
The term normally relates to all kinds of waste, whether generated during the extraction of raw
materials, the processing of raw materials into intermediate and final products, the
consumption of final products, or other human activities including municipal (residential,
institutional, commercial), agricultural, and social (health care, household hazardous waste,
sewage sludge).Waste management is intended to reduce adverse effects of waste on health,
the environment or aesthetics.

Food waste is one of the most prominent waste streams.The mushrooming of hotels,
restaurants, fast-food joints and cafeterias has resulted in the generation of huge quantities of

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food wastes. Food waste is an untapped energy source that mostly ends up rotting in landfills,
thereby releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Food waste includes organic wastes
generated in hotels, restaurants, canteens, cafeterias, shopping malls and industrial parks in the
form of leftover food, vegetable refuse, stale cooked and uncooked food, meat, teabags,
napkins, extracted tea powder, milk products etc. It is difficult to treat or recycle food waste
since it contains high levels of sodium salt and moisture, and is mixed with other waste during
collection.
Food waste can be recycled by two main pathways:
 Composting: A treatment that breaks down biodegradable waste by naturally
occurring micro-organisms with oxygen, in an enclosed vessel or tunnel or pit
 Anaerobic digestion or biogas technology: A treatment that breaks down
biodegradable waste in the absence of oxygen, producing a renewable energy (biogas) that
can be used to generate electricity and heat.
Wastewater management
It was recognized as an issue that had been largely ignored by the international community.
WATE WATER MANAGEMENT

Wastewater treatment is a process used to convert wastewater - which is water no longer

needed or suitable for its most recent use - into an effluent that can be either returned to
the water cycle with minimal environmental issues or reused. The latter is called water
reclamation and implies avoidance of disposal by use of treated wastewater effluent for various
purposes. Treatment means removing impurities from water being treated; and some methods
of treatment are applicable to both water and wastewater. The physical infrastructure used for
wastewater treatment is called a wastewater treatment plant

Key Control Parameters

How often has been found that insufficient data has been available relating to key control
parameters of wastewater treatment operation and performance? Unfortunately the answer is
“way too often”.
 Many business could save themselves a lot of time and money through recording and
reviewing key control parameters on a regular basis.
The establishment of target and optimum ranges for key control parameters can assist in
forecasting when non-compliances could arise and allow for suitable remedial measures to be
implemented before a problem develops.
Key control parameters relating to the Activated Sludge Process include:

BOD (or COD) load: Units: kg/day

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 Biological wastewater treatment plants are designed and operated on the basis of the
oxygen demand (BOD or COD) received and removed.
 The concentration of BOD (in mg/l) in the influent can be used to calculate the total
BOD load per day being treated. This is simply done by multiplying the BOD in mg/l by
the daily effluent volume in cubic metres (m3) and dividing the product by 1000.

Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS):Units: mg/l

 This parameter is essential for the calculation of the F/M loading (and sludge age).
 Sometimes the alternative parameter ‘mixed liquor volatile suspended solids’ (MLVSS) is
used. This refers to the ‘volatile’ or organic fraction of the MLSS.

F/M loadingUnits: kg BOD/kg MLSS/day

 ‘Food to Mass’ ratio determines the degree of BOD removal likely to be achieved.
 In general the lower the F/M loading the greater the BOD removal efficiency.
 If the F/M ratio becomes too low, certain operating problems can occur.

Sludge age (Mean Cell Residence Time): Units: days

 The sludge age or Mean Cell Residence Time (MCRT) may be defined as the mass of
solids (MLSS) in the plant at any time divided by the mass of new solids made each day.
 The higher the F/M loading the shorter the sludge age and vice versa.
 This is because new biomass is produced at a fast rate when food supply is high and at a
slower rate as food supply is reduced.
 A long sludge is required for certain specific objectives, nitrification being the most usual.
 Solids- liquid separation problems can result if the sludge age is excessively long.

Dissolved oxygen: Units: mg/l

 The dissolved oxygen should be maintained above 1 – 1.5 mg/l in all parts of the aeration
basin.
 Where nitrification is required the dissolved oxygen needs to be 2 mg/l or higher in all
parts of the basin.
 Reduced dissolved oxygen is a key indicator of treatment plant loading or performance.

Nutrient requirements

 The principal nutrients which often have to be supplied in chemical form are nitrogen and
phosphorous. The usual minimum requirement is related to the BOD of the raw
wastewater (influent), ie BOD:N:P.
 A range of micronutrients (e.g. trace metals such as copper, manganese, cobalt, selenium
etc.) may also need to be supplied.

Sludge volume index (SVI): Units: ml/g
 SVI is calculated as
 Settleability (ml/l) / MLSS (g/l)

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Temperature

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