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Worker Policies - 1.1 Worker Practices

Last updated on March 2, 2017

Workers can contaminate food, food contact surfaces, water supplies and packaging materials if they do not follow basic practices.

Worker practices food safety flow chart

This good agricultural practice applies to farms that have workers who milk livestock, handle eggs, honey, fruit or vegetables.

Workers include owner, family members, supervisors, full-time, part-time and seasonal workers, and volunteers.

What Needs to Be Done

Implement good worker practices to reduce the risk of worker-borne contamination.

How to Do It

Develop written good worker practices. Communicate to workers the practices for your operation relating to:

  • Personal food, drinks and medication in or around food handling or storage areas,
  • Smoking, chewing tobacco, chewing gum and spitting in or around food handling or storage areas,
  • Wearing jewelry (unless jewelry is suitably covered), nail polish, badges, pins, and other items that may cause physical contamination.

In General

  • Have designated areas for eating, drinking and smoking.
  • Provide a storage area for all personal property, including worker lunches.
  • Designate someone to ensure workers are following expectations.

If You Need an Audit

Be prepared for the auditor to:

  • review written expected worker practices
  • observe designated areas for smoking and eating that are separate from the production, packaging and storage areas, and
  • review training records.

Laws & Regulations that Apply

There are few specific agricultural laws that impact on food safety requiring persons to have specific personal on-farm practices. Generally, these requirements are laid out in laws regarding the processing of meat, fish and other food products or egg grading stations which are outside the scope of this document.

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