To meet the hygiene requirements, persons working in the food industry must:
- Dress as required in food industry work
- Take care of their personal and hand hygiene, ensuring that foodstuffs and food contact surfaces are not contaminated
- Comply with the statutory hygiene regulations applicable to the food industry.
Personal hygiene comprises wearing suitable clothing and looking after one's own health and cleanliness.
Good personal hygiene and hand hygiene help to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and, for example, the human pinworm to foods.
A person who has an infectious disease that is likely to be transmitted through foods, or who is a carrier of such a disease or has, for example, infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea, must not handle food or be in a food-handling area for any reason if there is a risk of direct or indirect contamination. A person who is so affected and employed in a food business and who is likely to come into contact with food, must immediately inform their employer of the illness or the symptoms and, if possible, what has caused them.