The hygiene rules of the law for food work
Outcome. FI: Henkilö osaa menetellä lainsäädännössä elintarviketyölle asetettujen hygieniamääräysten mukaisesti. EN: The person can act in accordance with the hygiene rules set for food work in legislation.
Why it matters
The law sets health rules for food workers and requires a hygiene passport. Breaking them can put customers at risk and the business in trouble.
Illness at work
- A person with a disease likely to be transmitted through food, a carrier, or a person with infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea may not handle food or be in a food-handling area if there is a likelihood of direct or indirect contamination. Staying in the area without touching food is not allowed.
- An employee with such a condition who may come into contact with food must immediately report the illness or symptoms, and if possible their causes, to the operator.
- After norovirus illness, stay away from work at least two days after the symptoms end.
- A Salmonella carrier, even without symptoms, must not work with unpackaged foods served unheated, until three consecutive stool samples show no Salmonella. A carrier may be moved to tasks with no unpackaged perishable foods. Carriage can last from two to four weeks up to several months, and not all infected people show symptoms.
- A person infected with shigella must not do tasks in which food or food-contact surfaces are handled. A hepatitis A carrier must not handle unpackaged foods.
- Carriage of HIV, ESBL, MRSA or hepatitis B or C does not in itself prevent food work, but the worker is advised on very careful hand hygiene.
- A municipal communicable-disease physician can decide on absence from work of a person with a generally hazardous disease for up to two months at a time, extendable by up to six months at a time.
The Salmonella statement
- The employer must require a reliable statement that the worker has no Salmonella infection if the tasks involve an above-normal risk of spreading it. It is required also from trainees and others who work without an employment relationship.
- It is required before the employment relationship begins, or when there is a justified reason during employment to suspect carriage. It is required from those who work for at least one month; for shorter work only if the employer finds it necessary.
- Until it is presented, the worker may not work with unpackaged foods served without heating.
- It involves an interview by a health care professional and, if judged necessary, a stool test. It is not the same as the hygiene passport, and one does not replace the other.
- The operator must ensure that staff health does not endanger food safety and keeps up-to-date information about the statements. The actual health data need not be kept at the workplace; occupational health care can hold it.
The hygiene passport
- A person who handles unpackaged easily perishable foods in a food premises must have a hygiene passport once such work has lasted at least three months. Up to three months without a passport is allowed. Earlier work in tasks that required a passport counts, and separate short periods are added together.
- Statutory exemptions cover, among others, prisoners obliged to work, conscripts and civil-service personnel, certain social-welfare clients in work or day activity, and persons serving community sanctions.
- The operator keeps a record of staff hygiene competence and shows it to the authority on request.
- The passport is proved with the original card or the original paper certificate, which are equal. A degree certificate does not replace it. Passports are valid until further notice, and a passport cannot be obtained on the basis of a qualification.
- In general, workers dress as the work requires, keep personal hygiene so that food and food-contact surfaces stay clean, and act according to the hygiene rules.
Scenario
A new cook says she had diarrhoea yesterday. The operator sends her home and keeps her out of the kitchen until symptoms have stopped and, for norovirus, two days have passed. The hiring is fine, but the Salmonella statement is still needed before she handles unpackaged unheated food.
Numbers to remember
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Norovirus | away from work at least 2 days after symptoms end |
| Salmonella carrier returns | after 3 consecutive negative stool samples |
| Statement, required for work of | at least 1 month |
| Passport needed after | 3 months of such work |
| Passport validity | until further notice |
| Absence decision | up to 2 months at a time, extend up to 6 months at a time |
Myth vs reality
- Myth: Only workers with fever are barred. Reality: Diarrhoea, infected wounds, skin infections and carriers are covered too.
- Myth: A hygiene passport replaces the Salmonella statement. Reality: They are separate.
- Myth: A photo of the card is enough. Reality: The original card or paper certificate is needed.
In the test
Numbers matter here: two days, three samples, three months. Any answer that lets an ill worker stay near food is false.