Hair Contamination from Arm or Hand Hair

We know some food workers are very hairy e.g.

 werewolf-21.jpg   135.71KB   21 downloads
 

Some food plants require the wearing of long sleeved clothing and gloves, but some others require neither. 

I'm interested in finding out what you do in your business, what your product is and your risk assessment.

For my part food packaging no gloves and short sleeved t-shirts, no direct handling of product.

At my place we wear disposable caps which cover head,  Full sleeve Apron, gloves while handling product and  no direct product handling.

sometimes if there is powder packaging disposable aprons are also suggested to wear above cloth apron.

Hi Simon,

For my part food packaging no gloves and short sleeved t-shirts, no direct handling of product.

I'm slightly confused by above.

Did you mean "no" short-sleeved shirts or "yes" short-sleeved shirts ? Personally I have encountered both, for both food and packaging (short for various reasons,eg manufacturing temperature/environment/flour/packaging products, hygienic unconcern in other food cases).

"no gloves / no direct handling". Did you mean "finished' product or ?? Via total automation of line or ? Personally, for packaging, i hv invariably encountered no gloves / direct handling for master carton / direct fc box manufacturing  but very small sample, albeit ISO 9001 approved. For food i hv met almost every conceivable permutation ranging from astronaut quality to the unmentionable, and not necessarily correlated to finished product status either.

When you see people hastily removing the "No Spitting" sign at the entrance before yr audit, the usage of gloves slightly loses its impact.

Should say that I hv not knowingly seen any werewolves though.

Rgds / Charles.C

I draw the line at hairnets and beardnets.  One must draw the line somewhere or pretty soon you will see eyebrow and eyelid nets!  That's what risk assessments are for!

We do Hair nets, beard nets if you didn't shave, gloves and arm guards for food contact and short sleeved jump suits. We are a small cheese facility and we hand cheddar.

Kevin 

we have hair nets, boiler suits, gloves and very fashionable snoods. we manufacture food supliments with food powders so that stuff gets every where.

Hello from the newbie.

From my point of view, as a Technical and Food Safety auditor with about 3647 years experience across pretty much all sectors of the food industry, the answer to this one is "There is no simple answer".

It depends on your own businesses risk assessment as to what the "risks" are and what you are trying to avoid/control.

Just some thoughts:-

Full hair and Beard covering - pretty much a given for all food facilities accredited to GFSi recognised standards. I personally do not like face masks as I wear glasses and end up steaming them up breathing. All in all my personal favourite head covering is fine mesh/disposable elasticated (around the facial area) balaclavas. Do the job and comfortable to wear.

Bare arms - arguably better for hygiene as can be effectively washed and sanitised more frequently, with the "uncomfort factor when dirty coming into play", however not possible to heat sterilise as with cloth sleeves for overalls, (I think the H&S manager may have something to say about that one),  but risk of hair/fur contamination in some cases, mind you, cloth overalls can also drop threads etc into product. What are you as a business more comfortable saying to that distressed customer who has found the one and only hair/thread that you have "ever" had reported. With arm hair - try and convince them it is not from a rat! Some auditors/CB's will require full arm covering for High care or high risk operations with bare arms allowed in low risk. Elasticated cuffs/collars again required by some. 

Gloves - I'm not a great fan of the indiscriminate use of these, but they do have a place. Bear in mind - they are a foreign body hazard themselves, and can lead to a false sense of security. Also a tendency to wash hands less often due to the lack of discomfort factor. In addition they can make your skin sweat and subsequently flush out deep pore bacteria which unless followed by proper hand washing and sanitisation on glove change can end up contaminating the surface of the fresh pair of gloves. If I am auditing a factory and am required to wear gloves - I always make a point of washing and sanitising hands, before putting on gloves, then washing and sanitising the gloves. Then repeating the process at glove change, eg on damage, moving departments or as part of allergen control procedures.

Boots/Captive footwear - An ongoing nightmare. Captive required for High Risk operations, that can be easily cleaned and sanitised. Boots not a good idea where there may be lots of hot liquids/slurries etc around. Try and get a boot off quickly when it has been filled up by a spillage of Bolognese sauce at >90°C. In this case, captive slip on shoes are best idea. I also do not like some of the welly washers you find - ie the car wash type ones where you walk up and stand infront of them then shove one leg at a time into a slot to have your trousers sprayed with cold water where somone has forgotten to replenish the sanitiser. Then step back down onto the floor where you have just stood with your unwashed boots.

For me - the best ones are the long shuffle through leg either side thingys which act as a nice barrier as well, one on the way in and a separate one on the way out. I have seen these tied in with hand wash systems, sanitiser sprays, magic eyes looking for the correct colour coats and automatic barriers etc.

For us, Chilled and frozen seafood products, both raw and ready to eat. we have a variety of systems.

Low risk - full coats with cuffs, mop hats (beard snoods if required), boots captive to the company with washers on entrance & exits. Gloves are available but not required.

High Care - as above, but boots/shoes captive to the high care area, wash on entrance and exit.

High Risk - As above, (shoes not boots) captive to the high risk area, wash on way in and exit - not allowed out of the high risk part of the changing room - swing over benches etc. Gloves for open food handlers with 20 min changes or on damage, with regular hand/glove swabs. Separate coloured full body binliner like shroud things when handling allergen containing components (eg marinades, sauces etc.

Bit verbose, but I think supports the "you determine the risk to your operation and implement controls appropriately" school of thought.

At the end of the day if you are comfortable with explaining yourselves to the media and judiciary and can validate your reasonings for doing (or not doing) something then you probably have got it about right.

Although bear in mind that your customers do not have to prove or validate having an "opinion" and that we are all more and more on trial by (anti) social media which seems to work on the premis that "The less based on fact that someones opinion, or status, or comment is, the more shares, likes, re-tweets etc it is likely to get". I call it "The law of diminishing Twitface Truth".

We know some food workers are very hairy e.g.

werewolf-21.jpg
 

Some food plants require the wearing of long sleeved clothing and gloves, but some others require neither. 

 

I'm interested in finding out what you do in your business, what your product is and your risk assessment.

 

For my part food packaging no gloves and short sleeved t-shirts, no direct handling of product.

We are a fruit & vegetable concentrate processing plant in Australia and our process workers must wear hair nets & facial hair covering at all times. The disposable hair covering is for everyone including those with no hair. Long sleeves or gloves do not have to be worn as we do not have open tanks or exposure to product. Drumming out is into scholle bags (bung bags) with a small opening for filler head to be attached to. All product is inline throught out the processing procedure. Anyone entering the processing area must also abide by this rule. You may say that if everything is inline why the hair/face covering. This is just added protection as head and facial hair is more readily lost. 

Regarding hand hair, I came across this in a factory I used to work at (RTE sandwiches). There was a no glove policy, which is fine as the disinfection process prior to entering the factory was robust, but this chap was a food handler on the production line and seemed to have more hair on his hands than his head (and he wasn't bald). Hair complaints were high anyway, I wanted to approach this as quickly and simply as possible so thought about two options; we move him to a non-food handling position, or we make him wear gloves. Luckily, we chose the latter and he was quite happy about it. I am sure the reaction of some has been fruitier.

The question for me at the moment is, is it appropriate to ask a female colleague to wear a beard snood if they have a moustache?

Mondo, short answer, yes. You should make sure that men whose facial hair is the same length is addressed.  We have had to do this for temp worker in our facility. We gave her until the next time she came out to address it at home or wear a facial net.

She addressed it at home.  Thankfully!

Setanta

Hair nets and beard guards.

Gloves are to be used at any time when handling product or ingredients.

We also have lab coats - some people wear them, some do not.

We are getting ready to go to a clean-shaven policy in the production area due to some NIOSH high ingredients we use and the need for half or full face masks.

We make food flavorings, powders, and extracts.

Mondo, short answer, yes. You should make sure that men whose facial hair is the same length is addressed.  We have had to do this for temp worker in our facility. We gave her until the next time she came out to address it at home or wear a facial net.

 

She addressed it at home.  Thankfully!

Setanta

Good god, how on earth did you do that tactfully? 

"Look at you, rockin the Tyra Banks upper lip hair, gurrl.  I got some peroxide in muh car, and you just done won yerself a day at the QA Salon!"

"Excuse me, miss, you seem to have a moustache?  Shave it before you come back."

OMG, did you call the temp agency and have them tell her?  Did you have to tell her?  Did you have to discuss it in a meeting before you told her?  So.  Akward.  Deets needed.

I like hair nets cuz they also help keep bits of scalp ripping off when your pony tail gets caught in the conveyor. For ex, "Golly, Karen, I sure am glad that moving equipment ripped off your hair net and not your long, flowing locks"

A visitor told one of our batch makers to put on a long sleeved shirt and he asked me if she was serious.  I told him to always respect visitors unless they asked him to do something unsafe or unsanitary.  We had SUPER FUN HAND WASHING TRAINING the next day, and the invisble powder I put on his paper ended up all over his arm hair, and when he looked at it, he said "I guess she was right".  Now he wears long sleeves.