Cleaning

Anything you use from a fork to a freezer is food equipment, and keeping equipment and working areas clean, tidy and undamaged is another key ingredient to ensuring the health and safety of yourself, your colleagues and your customers. This means:

• Keeping them free from dirt, grease and contamination
• Keeping them in good working order, and notifying your supervisor immediately if they’re not
• Removing objects from around the food area so they can’t fall into food
• And, reducing bacteria to a safe level and stopping it from spreading

As a food handler, one of the best mottos you can live by is ‘clean as you go’. This means cleaning and tidying up after yourself during the working day, not just at the end of your shift. This means cleaning up spills when they happen, wiping down surfaces, tidying up after each task, removing waste bins and generally keeping your work area, equipment and yourself as clean and hygienic as possible.