How to Assess Your Food Service Risks
In the food industry, the health and wellness of employees and customers is essential to continued successful operations.
Employers are responsible for selecting of food service gloves that are “fit for use” and intended to reduce cross contamination from food borne illness in customers and employees.
Food borne illness risks include customer complaints and lawsuits, employee illness/workman’s comp claims, traceability investigations, regulatory fines, closures, negative publicity.
- 328 million US population 2019
- 48 million food borne illnesses /year
- 128,000 hospitalizations/year
- 3,000 deaths/year
- 1 in six customers will contract food borne illness
- 1 in 2,562 customers will be hospitalized
- 1 in 109,000 customers will die
- In 16-20% of food borne illness outbreaks, gloves have been contributory to cross contamination.
Risk Assessment involves the following processes:
- Hazard Identification/Risk Characterization
- Decide who might be harmed and how
- Evaluate the risks and decide on control measures
- Record your findings and implement them
- Review your assessment and update if necessary
Hazard Identification/Risk Characterization
- Hazards associated with food preparation include:
- Contamination of personnel handling contaminated food
- Introduction of microorganisms onto food from contaminated equipment
- Contamination of food by food handlers
- Improper food storage conditions
Persons affected include food handlers and food consumers.
Hazard Control
The initial control method is to ensure uncontaminated food is to purchase food that is free from contamination. A clean area is needed for food preparation, and persons handling food need to ensure proper hand-washing procedures are used. Gloves should be worn to prevent cross-contamination (food-to-food, person-to-food, and food-to-person). OSHA does not regulate gloves used on the workplace, but they must be suitable for the task. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides more direction under the 2017 Food Code, which includes employee education or training, employee health controls, and controlling hands as a vehicle of contamination. Persons handling food should be free of transmissible disease when handling food. Equipment should be clean and free of contamination. Persons preparing food should not have direct contact with food, and a protective barrier such as gloves is important in preventing food contamination by food handlers.
FDA regulation of gloves only regulate transmission of chemicals from gloves to hands or to the food the gloves contact. Medical gloves (examination gloves, surgical gloves) have more stringent requirements including leak testing performance requirements. Examination gloves have an acceptable quality level (AQL) of 1.5, meaning no leaks in 1.5% of medical examination gloves; surgical gloves are even more stringent, and they must be sterilized. This means that medical examination gloves cannot have more than 3 pinhole leaks in 200 gloves. The FDA further states that ready-to-eat food should not come into direct contact with bare hands, and hands should be washed with soap and water prior to performing food preparation activities. Single-use gloves should be used for contacting ready-to-eat food, and the gloves should be replaced when damaged or soiled. Unpackaged food should be protected from environmental contamination. Gloves should prevent migration of deleterious substances (such as microorganisms).
Report
A risk assessment report should be prepared and submitted to management for review and measures should be implemented to ensure safe food handling occurs.
Review
The risk assessment should undergo periodic review to ensure the control measures are adequate, and control measures should be updated as needed.
Conclusion
The information provided in this risk assessment provides a significant argument for use of proper protective equipment, especially gloves used for food handling. Legal actions can include fines, lawsuits for negligence, and bad publicity – all of which can affect profits, especially when hospitalization or death occurs from food contamination. The likelihood of an FDA or USDA inspection of small delicatessens is low. However, inspections by local health departments are much more likely to occur, and fines or closures can result from noncompliance. It may be difficult to determine the financial aspect of food contamination, but the Center for Disease Control (CDC) conducts annual reviews of foodborne illnesses and reports the results of such outbreaks. These outbreaks are more likely to occur from use of contaminated foods. Failure rates for different types of medical examination gloves have been reported, and this information should be used to assess the risks associated with use of substandard gloves for food preparation.