Guidelines to ensure hygiene in school canteens
Hygiene in school canteens depends on factors ranging from personal hygiene of workers to products used for cleaning.
Food regulations are increasingly demanding, but when the pressure for food security meets an audience as susceptible as children, hygiene becomes a priority as well as an obligation.
When it comes to ensuring hygiene in school canteens, many factors come into play, such as the personal hygiene of the monitors and the children themselves, the use of the correct cleaners or the importance of differentiating the spaces from each other.
Next, we present the main factors to take into account to guarantee hygiene in school canteens.
The importance of differentiating spaces
Reception and maintenance of food
Serve food: With or without gloves?
Personal hygiene of the monitors
Disinfectants, always with HA Registry
Nonwoven cloths for drying
The importance of differentiating spaces
It is not the first time we talked about zoning during cleaning. This action consists in detecting which spaces are different from each other, either by the activity that takes place in them or by the type of product and, if they are not compatible, treat them separately during the cleaning tasks.
What we achieve with this is to significantly reduce the risk of cross contamination.
To zoning the cleaning we need tools that allow us to distinguish where we use each brush, cloth or spatula. And for that we will help each other with different colors.
Reception and maintenance of food
Many school canteens work with catering that serves prepared food. In these cases we must check that, upon receipt, the temperature of the food is correct.
For example, if served hot, the temperature of the food should be around 65 ° C since, below this value there is the possibility of bacterial growth.
On the other hand, food is usually received in Gatronorm trays, which must be subsequently sanitized to prevent biofilms from sticking on their surface.
But not only is it enough to control the reception of the food, but we must ensure the same conditions until it is served.
Serve food: With or without gloves?
We have already discussed this issue in other articles and the result is that it is recommended to serve food while avoiding the use of gloves. Yes! Hand hygiene becomes a constant and unqualifiable ritual.
And when we wear gloves, we “stretch” their use too much, putting food safety at risk and often causing cross-contamination problems. In addition, jewelry that jeopardizes food safety is also prohibited.
Monitors and kitchen staff should wash their hands with soap-free soaps, as many foods are sensitive to certain odors. Gojo Mild soap is a good option in these cases.
Personal hygiene of the monitors
The personal hygiene of the monitors plays a key role in preserving food safety. And just as the use of gloves is discouraged, the caps are a mandatory Personal Protective Equipment.
The gowns that the monitors wear must dispense with pockets or other corners that allow the accumulation of particles. And, of course, the gown or shirt worn to accompany children at recess will never be the same as the one worn during the dining room service.
In addition, any type of injury must be properly covered and, in these cases, if deemed appropriate, the use of gloves will be allowed.
Disinfectants, always with HA Registry
The HA Registry guarantees that the disinfectant in question is suitable for use in environments that work with food, but always in the absence of them.
Pre-disinfection step, cleaning will be carried out. In this case, the use of a cleaner or other will be determined by the type of waste to be removed, opting for acidic cleaners for inlays, alkaline cleaners for traces of grease and neutral cleaners for delicate surfaces.
Cleaning and disinfection will be carried out after each service and it will be the company that determines how often thorough cleaning is done.