Importance of Personal Hygiene in Food Safety

The essay brings about the discussion on topic of the assignment food safety and sanitation and the related aspects. Food safety and sanitation is one of the most common issue observed in the food industry. As the delivery of the food services quickly and profitably, is considered important, thus maintaining safety and hygiene is equally important for the industry as well as their customers. Here, there will be description about the aspects of the food safety, hygiene and the other concepts in context to the restaurant and the hawker stall, named as ‘Washoku’ and ‘Uncle Soon Fried Rice’.

Food safety and sanitation play a major role in shaping the growth and career of the firms operating in the food industry in any country. In the open-kitchen restaurant ‘Washoku’, a japan-based restaurant, it has been stated that food safety issues, and accidents has been reported which led to the strengthening of methodologies to prove food safety in the companies (Prabhusaran et al., 2018). Food safety operations in the food processing, handling and distribution includes a number of aspects, which leads to the efficiency of the food processing and services to the customers. The operations in restaurant Washoku, in the food industry include various activities, preparation of food, cleaning, purchasing raw materials, disinfection, accounting, and reporting (Ababio and Lovatt, 2015).

The restaurant or food providers must practice food safety programs & personal hygiene as an important factor in their system. Maintaining personal hygiene is essential to ensure food safety, to the people or customers. For an instance, hand washing for preparing food is one of the most important parts of the personal hygiene. Personal hygiene is the responsibility of the management of the restaurants. Thus, managers must focus on formulating policies, providing training to the food handlers on personal hygiene, modelling correct behaviour everytime, supervising food safety practices, and making changes in the personal hygiene policies according to the food industry (Al-Shabib et al., 2016).  

The food providers must ensure about the food contamination, which may occur due to the use of personal item while preparing food. These personal items refer to jewels, watches, radios and telephones are the sources affecting personal hygiene. The restaurants or the food authorities must check and evaluate of the personnel’s health and hygiene as it will affect their food handling practices, which influences their service delivery effectiveness. Therefore, personal hygiene is integral to prevent food contamination and the occurrence of other illness and assure people food safety (Cortese et al., 2016).  

Food Handling Practices at Washoku Restaurant

In restaurants, managers are responsible to assess and monitor the food handling practices, which contributes to the food-borne illness in people. Food handlers are the individuals or persons who work in the food business and who handles either food or the surface, which is likely to be in the contact with food; such as cutlery, plates and bowls. Washoku staff and food prepares focused on a number of things such as washing hands before and during food preparation, using separate utensils & cutting board while preparing, separating raw and cooked food in the restaurant (Marriott, Schilling, and Gravani, 2018).

Food handling practices or providing safe and healthy food environment, in an open kitchen it is stated that design and the layout are important aspects. The food prepares in open kitchen mainly consider maintaining appropriate temperature, and sanitation has the major control on their customers. Also, one of the most appealing factor of the open kitchen is that the chefs or cooks entertain their patrons, while preparing meals. They use safe and clean utensils, gloves, and the other necessary items to cook and deliver fresh foods. 

Washoku checks that the meat is prepared thoroughly; reheating cooking food, thawing frozen food in the refrigerator, and covering food after it is fully prepared. Therefore, the above practices adopted by the restaurant Washoku, assure that their food handling staff trained well enough for the hygiene and are aware of the rules and regulations of the Washoku (Lee, Hwang and Mustapha, 2014).

Washoku, ensures maintenance of Cleaning & Dysinfection systems, it means that they ensures their processing equipment’s and the food rooms cleaned regularly. The staffs in the Japanese restaurants like Washoku wear cap, apron, mask, and single-use gloves while handling ready to eat food, use of tongs, deli sheets, and clean & sanitized utensils. They follow proper waste management programs or strategies, in their workstation that helps in maintenance of the cleanliness facility to their workers, leading to the improved food services (Marriott, Schilling and Gravani, 2018).

The equipment used by the food preparers in the restaurant Oven & Ranges, Fryers, microwave Owens, reach-in coolers, and freezers, roaster ovens are used to hold the food warm and the Food Prep tables. The restaurant organises their food display conditions in an effective manner, through different cabinets, and monitor screens, and focuses on identifying pests, improves their food quality by storing the food away from the walls. Seafood and the raw and cooked meat identified as the potentially hazardous food on the menu of the restaurant (Henderson, 2017).

Sanitation Practices at Washoku Restaurant

The illness occurs when a person ingests the contaminated foods or beverages and fall sick. There are some of the common symptoms of the food borne illness, such as upset stomach, fever, diarrhoea, dehydration, and vomiting. The challenges or problems related to food safety may include factors such as time, language & culture, literacy & education, pathogens, unapproved suppliers, and high-risk customers affecting the quality of food services. Food preparers in these stalls do not wear mask, cap, or gloves in their hands, which often contaminates food and they have no proper system for the waste management (Heiman et al., 2016). The food handling practices adopted by the vendors in the hawker stalls are unhygienic, unhealthy, & harmful to the health as they use of unique flavours, in food items. In most of the cases, in the street stalls, unavailability of running water, washing of hands and crockery is done in the bowls or buckets and even without soap, i.e. lack of cleanliness in their food handling practices and the flies, mosquitos, and food, here rice is left uncovered making the food contaminated. In addition, they have no equipment’s or the methods to display their food conditions, or their food items. Diarrhoeal diseases, mostly caused by food-borne microbial pathogens are the leading cause of illness by hawker stalls. The food in these stalls is the hazardous as they affect the health and hygiene of the people and make them fall ill, leading to the illness (Charalambous et al., 2015).

Discussing the aspects of food safety and sanitation, this is a reflection of some of my own experience and the realisation that the food safety issue is one of the major problems in the modern food industry. According to my personal experiences, I have come across many street stalls, which were near my school, and college, providing uncovered food items surrounded by the flies, mosquitos made me, fall sick in those years. According to my research  in the food safety and management in the restaurant and hawker stall, I have understood that there is a difference in managing a restaurant and a hawker stall, as a restaurant is a large-scale  business and stalls run their businesses on small scale. I have assessed the roles of food preparer in both the cases, some aspects, which every person who prepares and eats food must consider. One must wash hands, before eating food in any restaurant or hawker stall, and we must purchase the food that ensures that the food is safe and healthy to be consumed. Also, I have learned to check if the food is contaminated or damaged before purchasing or eating, and purchasing from the those vendors or restaurants which ensure cleanliness, hygiene, and food safety.  

Challenges in Ensuring Food Safety at Uncle Soon Fried Rice Hawker Stall

It is essential for the restaurant and the hawker stalls to recognise the impact of the contaminated foods and repercussions of the food-borne illnesses. Restaurant sanitation is the key when it is the concern to keep food safe and promote health. Therefore, it is recommended that the street vendors and restaurant staff must involve themselves in the healthy practices, and must ensure effective sanitation and revise the personal hygiene policies in their workstation. They must follow the safety and sanitation standards, and improve their food handling practices.

To conclude the above discussion, it has been analysed that the food safety and sanitation is an important factor for the effective working of the food industry in any country. It has been found that without personal hygiene there is no food safety or sanitation. On an average, over 200, 000 people in a day, in the United States fall ill with the food-borne diseases. Japanese based restaurant was effective in terms of their food handling practices whereas the street vendor ‘Uncle soon Fried rice’ lack behind in delivering hygienic and healthy food to the customers. Hence, the employees in the restaurants and staff should incorporate health and hygiene related practices in preparing, storing, and serving food to their customers.

References 

Ababio, P.F. and Lovatt, P. (2015) A review on food safety and food hygiene studies in Ghana. Food Control, 47, pp. 92-97.

Al-Shabib, N.A., Mosilhey, S.H. and Husain, F.M. (2016) Cross-sectional study on food safety knowledge, attitude, and practices of male food handlers employed in restaurants of King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Food Control, 59, pp. 212-217.

Charalambous, M., Fryer, P.J., Panayides, S. and Smith, M. (2015) Implementation of Food Safety Management Systems in small food businesses in Cyprus. Food Control, 57, pp. 70-75.

Cortese, R.D.M., Veiros, M.B., Feldman, C. and Cavalli, S.B. (2016) Food safety and hygiene practices of vendors during the chain of street food production in Florianopolis, Brazil: A cross-sectional study. Food Control, 62, pp. 178-186.

Heiman, K.E., Garalde, V.B., Gronostaj, M., Jackson, K.A., Beam, S., Joseph, L., Saupe, A., Ricotta, E., Waechter, H., Wellman, A. and Adams-Cameron, M. (2016) Multistate outbreak of listeriosis caused by imported cheese and evidence of cross-contamination of other cheeses, USA, 2012. Epidemiology & Infection, 144(13), pp. 2698-2708.

Henderson, J.C. (2017) Street food, hawkers and the Michelin Guide in Singapore. British Food Journal, 119(4), pp. 790-802.

Lee, J.H., Hwang, J. and Mustapha, A. (2014) Popular ethnic foods in the United States: a historical and safety perspective. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 13(1), pp. 2-17.

Leisner, J.J., Lund, T.B., Frandsen, E.A., Andersen, N.B.E., Fredslund, L., Nguyen, V.P. and Kristiansen, T. (2014) What consumers expect from food control and what they get–A case study of the microbial quality of sushi bars in Denmark. Food control, 45, pp.76-80.

Marriott, N.G., Schilling, M.W. and Gravani, R.B. (2018) Principles of food sanitation. Berlin: Springer.

Prabhusaran, N., Manivannan, L., Pramila, M. and Prabhakar, Y.K. (2018) Knowledge, attitude and practice of personal hygiene, cleaning and sanitation during food processing. Nation, 2, p.3.