Person in Charge has Major Role Related to Employee Health
In the last blog, we talked about the importance of having healthy employees working in a foodservice operation and how that is related to foodborne illness. In this blog, we discuss employee health controls, one of five key public health interventions needed to control for risk factors of foodborne illness. The purpose of this control is to minimize the possibility that employees contaminate food. That means that employees need to be healthy, and that they report any symptoms or illnesses that might impact the safety of food served to customers.
The person-in-charge plays a major role in implementing employee health controls. First and foremost, the PIC needs to understand why employee health is important and its impact on the foodservice operation, what must be reported, when employees should be excluded or restricted from work, when they can return to work, and what must be reported to the regulatory agency.
Second, the PIC must communicate the responsibilities to employees, and must have documentation that employees know what they should do. Each foodservice operation must have written documentation to verify:
- Implementation of an employee health policy. Remember how we keep saying that written standard operating procedures are so important? This is a case in point. Your policy should include what should be reported and to whom. It should outline basic guidelines on when an employee can return to work.
- ALL employees are informed of their responsibility to report symptoms and illness.
- A training curriculum is established and rosters showing that employees have completed the training.
Note: Some managers have employees sign an agreement indicating they have received this information. One resource is Form 1-B, which is included in Annex 7 of the 2017 FDA Food Code (link). It is designed to be used in training and is signed and dated by the employee. This form would serve as documentation that the employee was told about his/her responsibility to report symptoms/illnesses. This form can be used as is, or modified for specific needs of an operation.
Third, the PIC has the responsibility to report some illnesses to the regulatory agency. Additionally, it should be reported if an employee is jaundiced or if they have one of the diagnoses listed on the previous blog.
Exclusion and Restriction
Exclusion means that an employee is not allowed to work, or even enter, a foodservice operation as a food employee. Restriction means that an employee’s activities are limited to prevent transmitting a disease through food. That means that an employee with restriction can’t work with exposed food, clean equipment, linens, or unwrapped single-service/use items.
How do you know when to remove exclusions and restrictions? Section 2-201.13 of the Food Code specifies when removing exclusions and restrictions can occur. It varies based on the diagnosis. For example, in some cases the individuals just has to be asymptomatic for 24 hours, while in other cases the employee must provide documentation that they can return to work from a health practitioner. Also, there is extensive information and discussion about employee health in Annex 3 of the Food Code.
There are many good resources available from Cooperative Extension and professional organizations to assist with communicating elements of an employee health policy. FoodHandler has videos and signage to reinforce fundamental messages about handwashing and avoidance of bare hand contact with foods. A SafeBites webinar on Standard Operating Procedures is also available.
Bottom line—employee health is the responsibility of both the employees and the person in charge. The person in charge has the responsibility to set the work place rules and monitor that they are followed. Be sure that the guidance in the Food Code is followed in your foodservice to minimize the risk for contamination. Risk nothing!
Developing Good Food Safety Habits
Good habits and habit development are something that has fascinated me for several years. If you’ve attended any the training programs or presentations that my colleagues and I have conducted through our Center for Food Safety in Child Nutrition Programs, you’ve likely heard me opine about the importance of habits and how habits are created. Many times, in foodservice operations we wonder why our staff don’t follow the food safety practices we have established in our operation. Perhaps they don’t wash their hands when they are required, perhaps they just don’t use the proper method of handwashing, or perhaps we find that they don’t complete our HACCP logs as often as our program dictates should occur. And while we can stomp our feet and say “it is their job, they should just do it”, it really isn’t that simple. We can’t order people to change, although if we could, business and human resources would be so much simpler.
Getting Your Playbook for Food Safety Organized
As anyone who has ever worked in a foodservice operation knows, from the time food is received in your establishment to the time it is served to your customers, following proper food safety practices is crucial. What many don’t often think about is this time really should extend from the time the manager places their orders with their suppliers (including which purveyors you utilize), through the time the food is consumed – even if that consumption occurs off your premises and days after the original order was picked up by the guest. This is something that has certainly been highlighted by the pandemic as customers across the nation are utilizing take-out, curbside to go, and third-party delivery options more so now than ever before.
Getting Started with Building the Infrastructure
Hopefully in our first January blog, we convinced you of the importance of establishing an infrastructure within your operation to support a safe food culture. So, how does one go about doing this? Well, like any major project, break it into small bites. In our opinion, having a written guide for employees that documents expectations related to food safety basics of employee health and hygiene, temperature controls, and cleaning and sanitizing is the first step. Having this documentation serves as a reference for training and helps fulfill the mission of most foodservice operators which is to serve safe, quality food.
Food Safety Resolutions for the New Year
Finally, 2020 is in our rearview mirror and we can all turn the page to 2021! Resolutions for the new year might be more of the same from prior years (lose weight, exercise more, less screen time, etc.) OR you may have identified new practices to implement in your operation. If the latter, likely goals included some practices related to food safety – especially given the turmoil of 2020 and heightened concern by customers. It is our philosophy that attention to safe food handling practices is a win-win for any operation because of the direct relationship between food safety and food quality, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction. This past year has also demonstrated that attention to safety can affect the bottom line. Thus, the topic of our first SafeBites webinar for 2021 is on the topic of the return on investment of food safety, it is scheduled for January 20, so register now and please plan to attend.
