Page 83 - FoodFocusThailand No.195 June 2022

STRONG QC & QAQA
STRONG QC &
Hygiene Management

in Food Production:

A Focus on Personal Hygiene

of Food Handlers

People have the right to expect safe and suitable food for
consumption. Consuming unsafe food can lead to numerous
adverse outcomes, ranging from injuries, illness, and sometimes
even fatality. Over 600 million people around the world suffer
from diseases transmitted through foods, with approximately
420,000 deaths annually.

One of the important causes of foodborne outbreaks is the lack of food hygiene
during food production. This problem can effectively control if personnel in the food
business operation have an awareness and understanding of the importance of good
personal hygiene and comply with good hygiene practices to ensure the safety and
suitability of foods. Thus, effective food hygiene management is crucial to avoid the
detrimental effect on consumer health and economic loss.
Food hygiene is associated with conditions and necessary measures to ensure
that foods are safe and suitable for consumption at all stages of the food chain. Due
to the significant role of food handlers in producing safe and suitable foods for
consumption, food handlers with poor personal hygiene may contribute to the
contamination of food produced. This article focuses on the aspect of good personal
hygiene of food handlers that aid in preventing food contamination from
disease-causing bacteria and viruses based on 3 important guidelines suggested by
The United States Food & Drug Administration (U.S. FDA 2020) as follows.

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