EHO Inspection Guide Part 4: Handwashing and Food Storage
Part 4 - Preparing for your EHO Visit
Soap...Sanitisers.... Soap with Sanitisers.....
Provide a dedicated handwashing basin with an appropriate water supply, soap and hygienic hand-drying facilities. Effective handwashing with soap and water is essential; it does not sterilise your hands.
Wash hands before handling food and after touching raw meat, poultry, fish, eggs or unwashed vegetables, as well as after toilet visits and handling waste. Follow FSA handwashing guidance. Antibacterial soap is not a substitute for good handwashing technique.
At Astral we sell a wide range of soaps, but choose a suitable hand soap and follow your food-safety procedures. We stock the Gojo Anti-microbial soap, which comes out of a specific dispenser which is mounted on the wall. We also have 500ml pump top soaps which are smaller, also antibacterial and can be moved around. The other options available include a bulk fill soap dispenser which you could put the 5ltrs of anti-bacterial hand wash.
So if you have been peeling potatoes, and then move on to the carrots, you must wash your hands. Red meat – absolutely wash your hands, chicken wash your hands – you getting the picture – wash, wash, wash!!
A great deal of bacteria including norovirus (the sickness and diarrhoea bug) resides on our raw vegetables. If you think about how these vegetables are harvested, by who, how clean are these people keeping their hands? Have they washed their hands after they have gone to the toilet? How much faecal bacteria is on their hands which they are transferring to your vegetables – you‘d wash your vegetables too!
Wash produce according to your food-safety procedures. Do not apply general surface or washroom disinfectants to food. Any product proposed for produce washing must be explicitly suitable for that intended use and used exactly as directed.
Of course a fundamental nugget of info is to label your cooked food correctly, when was it prepared? By whom? Store it on the correct shelf/fridge. All cooked and raw foods must be stored and labelled correctly – so that you know how old it is, and when it is due to be used by?
If you have the luxury; separate fridges to minimise the risk of cross contamination, but if you don’t; use your common sense, raw meat on the bottom, and cooked up top!
I have linked a few useful products I have mentioned in this blog, so feel free to give my team a call with any questions, buy or have a browse. We also do dispensers for the soaps, which you can give us a call to have a look here.
Next week we’ll wrap this section up with some more tidbits of info on how to have a GREAT relationship with your EHO!
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