Food poisoning

When these notifications are received the circumstances surrounding the illness are looked into to try to identify, where possible, the cause of the illness and to give advice so that more people do not become ill.

Preventing the spread of illness through food

People who work around open food while suffering from certain infections (mainly from bacteria and viruses) can contaminate the food or surfaces the food may come into contact with. This can spread infection to other people through the food.

The Food Standards Agency has published guidance for managers and staff to prevent the spread of infection by advising which illnesses and symptoms staff should report and what managers should do in response:

Food Handlers: Fitness to Work

Control of Norovirus illness in hospitality and leisure settings

You may not be able to control infection being brought into your premises but it is your responsibility to ensure that you are able to control its spread amongst your customers.

Food business operators must prevent any person from working in food handling areas in any capacity if they are likely to contaminate food with harmful bacteria or viruses. This may include chefs, kitchen porters, waiting staff, cleaners etc. If these people are suspected to be carrying a disease that may be transmitted through food (eg because they have diarrhoea and/or vomiting) they must be excluded from food related duties.

Food handlers and other staff carrying out low-risk activities eg bar work, washing-up, waiting tables etc. are required by law to notify their supervisor if they suffer certain symptoms relating to gastro-intestinal illness. This duty needs to be brought to the attention of your employees to ensure that they report any significant symptoms to you. From this information you will need to make an assessment as to whether to allow them to work at the premises within 48 hours (current guidance) of suffering such symptoms.

The precautions for controlling viruses are different from bacteriological food related illness ie viral contamination of food will not be controlled by refrigerated storage or separating raw foods from ready to eat foods.

Good personal hygiene will assist in preventing the spread of infection between people and reduce the likelihood of the food becoming contaminated in the event of an outbreak of gastro-intestinal illness.

Appropriate training, supervision and facilities which incorporate liquid soap and single use towels and even non-hand operable taps will assist people to adopt good personal hygiene standards at work. Alcohol hand sanitising gels cannot be relied on to control Norovirus.

To prevent any illnesses spreading, you must consider what measures should be taken when a food handler reports symptoms of gastro-intestinal illness to you. The procedure may need to include:

• enhanced cleaning
• cooking of food that has been handled by anyone who later has symptoms
• reheating, until it is piping hot, food that has been handled by anyone who later has symptoms and
• checking whether other people who have been in contact with your staff (eg family and friends) have had similar symptoms which might indicate an infection.

Enhanced cleaning should include the use of detergent and hot water followed by a 0.1% solution of a chlorine releasing agent such as sodium hypochlorite eg household bleach. Soft furnishings may be steam cleaned. 8. Any vomiting must be cleaned up promptly to reduce environmental contamination and prevent persistent transmission of infection. Fresh vomit should be covered with paper immediately. Whilst clearing it away staff should wear personal protective clothing, including face protection, to limit the risk of infection. 9. It is recommended that food handlers do not use the toilets used by your customers as you have little control over whether the customer may be suffering from gastro-intestinal illness which might contaminate hand contact surfaces.

Information on other infectious diseases can be found on the Public Health England website.

Preventing E.coli contamination

Key measures

Some of the key measures highlighted in the guidance to control E.coli are:

• Businesses need to ensure that work areas, surfaces and equipment for raw and ready to eat food are adequately separated, either by physical separation or time separation, and is dependent on what is feasible for the business.
• Identification of separate work areas, surfaces and equipment for raw and ready-to-eat food.
• Separate complex equipment, such as vacuum packing machines, slicers, and mincers should be not used for both raw and ready to eat food during the normal operation of business. They need to be fully dismantled and all surfaces disinfected if a business wants to change the use of the machine from raw to ready to eat foods.
• Other types of complex equipment, such as temperature probes, mixers and weighing scales, may be used for both raw and ready to eat food subject to the business being able to demonstrate that such equipment will be effectively disinfected between uses.
• Hand washing should be carried out using a recognised technique. Anti-bacterial gels must not be used instead of thorough hand washing.
• Disinfectants and sanitisers must meet officially recognised standards and should be used as instructed by the manufacturer.

E.coli O157 - Full guidance from the Food Standards Agency