Global Hygiene Study

The results of the Global Hygiene Study, (conducted by Hygiene Audit Systems with Tonic Life Communications on behalf of the Hygiene Council), were revealed last week. I was interviewed by over 15 radio stations on the results and implications. Contrary to what the householders thought, the dirtiest item in the study of UK homes was the kitchen cloth, followed by the kitchen tap (probably wiped with the dirty kitchen cloth!) Only 15% of households in the survey disinfected their cloths, which could explain why 85% of the cloths tested failed! Interestingly in the UK 90% of respondents said that they would change their habits in the home if the study’s finding suggested they should. This is great news – hopefully householders will take the messages about cleaning cloths on board and change their habits, switching to disposable cloths or ensuring the kitchen cloth is changed or laundered more frequently – and at a high enough temperature to kill bacteria. Most householders thought that the dirtiest site in the home would be the toilet flush handle. This shows that we need to get the focus of disinfection into the kitchen, where the cloth could be spreading harmful bacteria on to food and hand-contact surfaces.

In the food industry the cloth is of course also a vector of disease of course, and I am sure a similar survey would uncover equally alarming results, and indeed Watchdog and Rogue Restaurants have found some very grotty specimens!

 Shortly I will be putting up a video demonstrating how bacteria can spread around the kitchen using a dirty cloth – watch this space!

Salad washing and more on dirty cloths

This week we heard about a catering company who ran into trouble after a member of staff failed to correctly dilute the chlorine tablet being used to sanitise salad items. The result? Two customers were admitted to A&E with nasty burns to the mouth and throat. This highlights the need for extreme vigilance when using chlorine as a means of washing and sanitising fruit and veg. It also demonstrates the wisdom of those choosing to change produce washing methods to non-toxic alternatives such as Fit wash. For too long, chlorine has been the only choice of produce wash for the food industry – and has been responsible for many complaints and accidents. Fit wash offers a better, safer, equally-priced alternative which actually cleans where chlorine doesn’t. I think it could soon be replacing chlorine as the new industry standard. Between 1992 and 2007 there have been 120 outbreaks of food poisoning associated with salads and vegetables, and yet it seems crazy that the way in which we try to avoid further outbreaks, is by washing our food in a potentially harmful chemical!

The Food Standards Agency has recently published another important document: ‘Annual report of Incidents 2008’

The Food Standards Agency has recently published another important document: ‘Annual report of Incidents 2008’. An incident is defined as:

‘any event where, based on the information available, there are concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety or quality of food that could require intervention to protect consumers’ interests.’

The FSA investigated 1298 incidents in the UK in 2008. Fourteen were classified as high level incidents (severe incidents with the potential to cause serious illness or death). These included:
• Melamime in dairy products from China
• Dioxins in Irish pork
• Aflatoxin contamination of figs
• Salmonella agona outbreak

Further information on these incidents is given in the document.

The FSA issued 149 food alerts in 2008 and 59 of these were allergy alerts. These alerts provide advice to both consumers and enforcement officers on what they need to do in the event of a food incident.

There is an online incident report form that businesses can use to quickly submit information on suspected food incidents and the products affected. This can be found at
www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/foodfeedform

The FSA launched a new incidents section on their website which can be found within the ‘Food Industries’ section. This provides information on incident response and prevention.

This document provides details of how incidents are classified and managed and gives lots of detail on the incidents that occurred in 2008. It is well worth a read and can be found on our website under research or at: http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2009/may/incidents

The Food Standards Agency has just published an important document

The Food Standards Agency has just published an important document, ‘Food Handlers: Fitness to Work – A Practical Guide for Food Business Operators’. This guide has been produced for food businesses to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases through food. This FSA publication updates and replaces the 1995 Department of Health guidance. For the first time, the guidance applies to all UK food business operators except primary producers (e.g. farmers and growers).

Diarrhoea and vomiting can be easily transmitted through food and therefore staff with these symptoms must report it to their managers immediately. Managers should then exclude these staff from working with or around open food for 48 hours from when symptoms stop naturally. In effect this means that if a staff member has diarrhoea, they will need to wait 48 hours after the diarrhoea stops or if they are taking diarrhoea prevention tablets to ease the symptoms they would need to wait 48 hours after treatment has stopped.

There are some cases where different action is required, for example if a food handler has been diagnosed with Salmonella typhi, Verocytotoxin producing E.coli, Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Skin infections/sores, Amoebic Dysentery, Shigella, worms or Vibrio cholerae 01 and 0139. In these cases you should refer to the guidance for information on what to do.

The guidance also discusses circumstances when exclusion may not be needed for example when someone is suffering morning sickness through pregnancy, has a hangover or a non infective illness that can cause sickness and diarrhoea such as chrohns disease. However if there is any doubt as to cause then it is best to exclude the person.

The guidance also requires that all staff who handle food and who work around open food must always:
• wash and dry their hands before handling food, or surfaces likely to come into contact with food, especially after going to the toilet.

Everyone working in a food handling area must maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness. Hand washing is an essential part of this. Hands can easily pass bacteria and viruses around the kitchen if they are not washed thoroughly with soap and hot water. Drying hands safely, preferably using paper towels is also essential. The guidance provides advice on the use of hand gels which will only work on clean hands so should only be used in conjunction with hand washing as opposed to being an alternative. It also discusses issues with the gels such as dermatitis and their limitations such as being ineffective against norovirus. My advice would be to ensure that staff are taught the basics of hand washing, use a good antibacterial soap, hot water and spend time to make sure that the hands are cleaned properly. Don’t forget the backs of hands, between the fingers and under nails! To help protect against dermatitis, hand cream can be used. There are now products on the market incorporating silver ions, which could help further reduce build up of bacteria on the hands.

The guide discusses the use of hand swabs to assess the level of bacterial contamination – I would recommend the use of swabs for assessing the effectiveness of a food handler’s hand washing regime – you would be surprised by some of the results. Hygiene Audit Systems has swabbing kits available on the website.

This guidance is not legally binding and individual businesses can decide whether they want to use it but I would strongly recommend that businesses do follow this advice to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases through food, to comply with the legal requirements of Annex II, Chapter VIII of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 and to help with due diligence if an outbreak ever occurred.

See my previous blog on the use of Glow in the Dark powder and UV torches to demonstrate how bacteria and viruses can be transmitted from dirty hands.

The document can be found on our research pages and on the FSA’s website http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/guidancenotes/hygguid/foodhandlersguide

Influenza A(H1N1) (Swine ‘flu) Update

As I write today there has been a case in Germany of transmission from an infected traveller from Mexico to another person who has not travelled, and results of tests are due to be announced later today about the possibility of similar person-person transmission in the UK.

A number of clients have asked me about whether they should buy cleaning products that are effective against viruses. The official line at the Health Protection Agency (HPA) is to use your normal cleaning products.

Many anti-bacterial products are likely to be effective against the flu virus, but maybe haven’t been tested as it is an expensive process; this means that the manufacturers can’t make an anti-viral claim.

However, I have worked with Reckitt Benckiser for some years and many of their products have been tested and found to be effective against Influenza A type H1N1, including the old favourite clear antibacterial cleanser spray, the Dettol surface wipes and the Dettol disinfectant aerosol spray.

Hand washing is an extremely important control measure, and the Dettol hand washes are proven to be effective against E.coli, Staph. Aureus, Salmonella and Campylobacter as well as Influenza A type H1N1.

In the work-place, we are recommending that staff wash their hands upon arrival at work to ensure that any contamination picked up on the tube, bus or train is removed and not spread around the building. This isn’t a bad idea anyway – regardless of the flu issue!

Advice is for people to cough or sneeze into a clean tissue which is then binned or better still flushed down the toilet. Hand washing should follow. If you don’t have a tissue, then it is better to cough or sneeze into the crook of your arm to contain the droplets.

Regular sanitizing of hand contact surfaces such as:

• Toilet door handles
• Taps
• Entry door handles
• Keyboards, mice, phones (shared desks)
• Kettle handles
• Photocopier
• Drawer handles

The method of sanitizing depends on the surface. For electrical items use a wipe carefully or spray a sanitizer onto a paper towel prior to wiping.

There are a number of other products on the market that may be helpful such as sanitizing hand foams, hand wipes, and anti-microbial hand barrier creams.

In food businesses, attention to sanitizing hard surfaces regularly at front of house is important, and one option may be to provide a foam type alcohol based-hand cleanser for staff on tills to reduce contamination levels on hands from handling money.

Currently HPA advice on wearing face masks is that the general public should not – see advice at: http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1240986147745?p=1231252394302

Impending Flu Epidemic

Swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza type A which infects pigs. There are many types, and the infection is constantly changing. Until now it has not normally infected humans, but the latest form clearly does, and can be spread from person to person – probably through coughing and sneezing. Symptoms of swine flu in humans appear to be similar to those produced by standard flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue. Most cases so far reported around the world appear to be mild, but in Mexico lives have been lost.

 

Whilst there are at the time of writing no confirmed cases of the new flu strain in the UK, the Department of Health has issued the following advice:

 

“It is always good practice to follow respiratory and hand hygiene such as:

• Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible.
• Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
• Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people.
• Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.
• Making sure your children follow this advice.
• Travellers to affected areas are advised to consult a doctor immediately if they show signs of flu-like symptoms.”

 

In the meantime, it would be very wise for schools and organisations to re-iterate the importance of hand hygiene and to ensure that wash basins are stocked with soap and towels to allow people to clean their hands effectively. It would probably be a good idea to get a sign up in the wash rooms to remind people of how to clean their hands as well.

 

My blog on 24th October 2008 referred to a hand-washing and hygiene workshop carried out in a local school. This exercise would be useful right now to ensure that staff and children understand the extreme importance of hand hygiene as a preventive measure against this epidemic.

 

The HPA campaign “Catch it, bin it, kill it” has good materials including a useful poster.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_080839

 

Finally, is it safe to eat pig meat? Yes. There is no evidence that swine flu can be transmitted through eating meat from infected animals but normal food safety procedures need to be followed to cook meat properly. A core temperature of 75C should be reached, which will kill the virus and other bacteria normally associated with pork and pork products.

The Public Inquiry into the outbreak of E.coli O157 in South Wales

The Public Inquiry into the September 2005 Outbreak of E.coli O157 in South Wales has just been published. It was the largest outbreak caused by E.coli O157 in Wales.

 

157 cases were identified, with 118 confirmed microbiologically and 109 were of a strain unique to the outbreak. One person, Mason Jones, aged 5 died and 31 people were admitted to hospital. 44 schools were affected – they had been supplied with meat from John Tudor and Son.

 

The strains of E.coli O157 found in infected people were indistinguishable from those found on cooked meats and raw meats from John Tudor and Son and from samples of cattle faeces taken from a farm.

 

The report states that the outbreak occurred because of hygiene failures at John Tudor’s premises. Willam Tudor has been prosecuted for these hygiene offences and was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment (according to Wales on-line he served only three months).

 

The businesses HACCP was “inaccurate and misleading” and William Tudor had lied to EHOs. Disturbingly, the report concludes that the deficiencies had been there for a long time before.

 

Criticisms were also made of the previous EHO inspections, which the report concedes were made more difficult by the dishonesty of Willam Tudor. However, they are criticised for not assessing the business’ management of food safety and HACCP as well as they could, or should have done.

 

The school meals contract award system was reported to be “seriously flawed in relation to food safety”. This is extremely worrying: with foods such as cooked meat, if hygiene is not assessed adequately by purchasers through the supply chain management, then there is an immediate failing of that supply chain’s HACCP – no later stage will improve the situation – in fact it will only get worse. The old adage “rubbish in, rubbish out” is only too poignant in these circumstances. Just add a bit of temperature abuse to the scenario and you have E.coli O157, which we already know is infective in very low doses, multiplying in cooked meat and potentially spreading to other foods via food handlers who are unaware that they are preparing a time bomb. They wouldn’t know that they should wash their hands AFTER handling cooked meat – so could easily spread the organism to other foods.

 

It is astonishing how such a large procurement organisation did not taking adequate care to select their high risk foods. Financial considerations may be important – but it is essential to get expert opinion on the safety of such foods. Third party inspection schemes such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC) help to provide assurance that companies meet high standards, but even then care needs to be taken to ensure that the certification is actually for the premises where the food is manufactured – and not a subsidiary.

 

For our clients, we offer a food safety supply chain management system which utilises the BRC system, but which also takes into consideration other factors and offers an additional audit should this be necessary. By monitoring complaints (another issue that was deemed inadequate in the Public Inquiry) it is possible to be alerted to problems and go and investigate. Furthermore, by having supply specifications on our data base, we can help clients remove defective products rapidly if there is a recall or alert.

 

The Report recommends that businesses contracting for the supply of high-risk foods, (the report includes in this definition raw meat as well as cooked), to public sector organisations must be subject to independent food hygiene audits – I would go a step further and require that all procurement companies must seek expert advice to assist with the tender processes: hygiene needs to be high on the agenda at an early stage.

 

The report puts some blame on poor Abattoir standards and mentions that whilst not an issue in this outbreak, schools need to ensure that adequate facilities are available for children to wash their hands (there is a recommendation that there should be audits to assess this – I think monitoring would be sufficient and practical). Please also refer to a previous Blog item about hand washing in schools and contact us if you would like a free lesson plan or details of our UV hand washing training kit.

 

Dishcloth Saviour!

Dr Lisa Ackerley has been dubbed the ‘Superhero of the Sink’ by Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. Speaking on his show last week (25th Feb), Lisa described how germs can be spread around the kitchen by the use of dirty dish cloths. Using evidence gathered during the Home Hygiene study we carried out for the UK Hygiene Council, Lisa confirmed that cloths are the antithesis of cleaning. The examples of cloths we collected and analysed were found to be heavily loaded with bacteria and dirt, some even carrying E. coli – not something that should be spread around kitchen surfaces and equipment, as it can cause serious illness if transferred to food. To listen to the Radio 2 interview and recommendations on safe cloth usage, please follow the link below.

 

Listen again http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/evans/

 

Duck – Is it safe to eat it pink?

With the recent upsurge in the popularity of serving duck, I have been asked several times in the last few months whether it is safe to serve duck pink. Pink in a duck breast is viewed as acceptable, perhaps even desirable by many, but salmonella food poisoning is most definitely not!

 

The good news is that the colour of duck flesh is not necessarily related to the safety of the cooked meat. The primary indicator of safety for all poultry is the core cooking temperature. Measured using a food thermometer in the thickest part of the breast or, if cooking a whole bird, in the area between the thigh and the breast, the core temperature should be 75^oC. It is possible to cook duck to this safe core cooking temperature and yet still retain some pinkness to the flesh.

 

Remember – as with other raw meats and poultry, duck is susceptible to Salmonella and in handling it, it is safest to assume it is contaminated. Salmonella (and other food poisoning bacteria) can be readily transferred by contaminated hands or equipment to ready to eat and cooked foods, so apply sensible precautions to avoid the risk of cross-contamination:

 

v  Store raw meat and poultry in clean sealed containers on the bottom shelf of the fridge, so it can’t touch or drip onto other food.

 

v  Make sure that the duck is prepared away from ready to eat foods and use separate equipment and knives.

 

v  Wash hands thoroughly after handling raw meat/poultry.

 

v  Ensure that the duck has reached a core temperature of 75^oC.

 

v  Food businesses that serve duck pink should make sure that they document cooking temperatures, to prove that a duck dish had reached a safe core temperature before serving. This will form part of their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Plan.

‘Scores on the Doors’ – Food Standards Agency approves six-tier scheme

Scores on the doors schemes serve to advise consumers on how well a food business complies with food hygiene regulations and empower consumers to be able to make more informed choices about where they purchase food.   These schemes may make a huge impact on hygiene standards as public awareness increases and people start to vote with their feet – particularly poignant in these credit crunch times. Not only will high scoring premises have a potential commercial advantage over others, but the media will also continue to use these schemes, and of course Freedom of Information legislation, to winkle out those premises that are on falling short of the grade and facing potential legal action. It would seem there is little place to hide for shameful premises.

 

At the moment, not all local authorities run these scores on the doors schemes but following the recent consultation by the Food Standards Agency, it will be encouraging the take up of a national scheme, so that consumers across the UK can obtain information on businesses in their areas. The final form of the National Scores on the Doors scheme is still being hammered out by stakeholder groups but the FSA have committed to a six tier scheme (probably 0-5 stars) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is also insistent that there will be an appeals procedure and opportunities for a business to request a re-visit to re-score. Many of the current schemes lack these features which were deemed unfair to business.

 

The national scheme will apply to all businesses supplying directly to the public e.g. restaurants, takeaways, supermarkets and other retailers. The FSA are funding the IT developments needed by local authorities to enable them to upload the results of their inspections on to a website that can be accessed by anyone wanting to eat out. The public will also be able to find this information by text message if they are out and about. In fact, colleagues have reported seeing groups of Saturday night revellers on Bradford buses all texting for hygiene scores and using the information to decide where to eat out!

 

EHOs will use three criteria to determine the score a business receives:

• Structural standards (e.g. cleaning, maintenance)
• Practices in place (e.g. training, personal hygiene)
• Confidence in management (e.g. HACCP, external audits)

 

 

So how can companies ensure that all their premises supplying to the public will receive 5 stars? In my opinion, the defence of due diligence has made a huge difference to food safety in larger organisations. These same principles that are used to ensure a robust defence when things go wrong can be applied to any business to increase the ‘confidence in management’ score given by the EHO. In my opinion, it is this category that many legally compliant businesses hoping to achieve a 5 star rather than a 4 star rating will struggle with.

 

It may sometimes seem like a minefield of regulation out there but most of the things that improve food safety are really quite basic. The due diligence defence basically involves proving that the business has taken all reasonable precautions to prevent an offence occurring.  In practice this means things such as using only reputable suppliers and keeping records of deliveries, food temperatures, stock rotation and cleaning.

 

Hygiene Audit Systems has devised a simple quiz which serves to demonstrate the key issues in ensuring good food hygiene and is based on the principles of HACCP and due diligence. It can be sent out to catering managers to gauge the current state of play. Clients have found that it uncovered some surprisingly honest answers and have been alerted and able to divert resources when there is a likelihood of a poor score.  Use the tips contained within my blog on Rogue Restaurants to move from sad face to happy bunny!

 

Hygiene Audit Systems specialises in making food safety simple and practical. We are shortly due to launch a Ten Steps to Success guide to help businesses improve, achieve and maintain high scores – watch this space for more details…..but if you can’t wait that long and want some immediate help to improve your scores on doors, whatever the size of the company, we will be pleased to lend a hand.

 

P.S. Hygiene Audit Systems will be at the Hospitality Show NEC, Birmingham between 19^th -21^st January. (Stand 1357), We would love to meet you!

 

Do you know a Rogue Restaurant?

 

Question?	J	K	L
Are storage cooking and cooling temperatures checked regularly?
Do all staff have at least Foundation/level 2 training in food safety?
Is there a documented cleaning schedule?
Are stored foods checked daily for shelf life and condition?
Is there a documented food safety management system?
Are there any pests?
Is there a pest control contract?
Are daily checks made to ensure foods are not contaminated?
Do all staff demonstrate high standards of personal hygiene?
Are there adequate staff facilities (basins, soap, water, towels / air dryers, lockers, toilets)
Do the premises and the equipment meet the standards required by law?
Is there a robust food safety management system?
Are regular management checks on all of the above?

 

Results:

 

All J

Well done – keep up the good work.

 

All/some K

You need to make some changes, but don’t worry, they may not cost an arm and a leg!

 

All/some L

You may be risking a low score on your door, or worse still, your customers may be at risk. Food safety need not be expensive to achieve, but get it wrong, and you could be in deep water – get some advice now!