In the Work Area of a Fish Processing Plant

Everyone who enters the work area of a fish processing plant should wear clean work clothes and try to reduce the risk of food safety hazards.

Here are some tips on what you can do to keep the fish and fish products you are preparing safe to eat.

Points to remember:

• The correct hand washing procedure
• Why you should not wear outside clothes in the work area
• The two main reasons you should not wear watches and jewellery in the work area.

Your Work Clothes

Here’s what you should wear:

Hair net: A disposable hair net keeps your hair from falling onto the fish products. All of your hair should be tucked under the net.

Beard net: A disposable beard net keeps hair from your beard out of fish products.

Gloves: Some tasks, such as preparing ready to eat fish products or cleaning the work area, require gloves. Once gloves can no longer be cleaned or sanitized you should throw them away. New gloves should be kept in a clean, dry spot where they will not be contaminated by splashes from any cleaning
products or waste.

Your fingernails should be cleaned and trimmed short. You should not wear nail polish or fake nails.

Smock or jacket: Your smock or jacket should be cleaned and sanitized at the start of each shift. It should not have buttons. Never carry anything in your pockets.

Boots: Boots should be washable, clean and sanitized at the beginning and end of each shift.

You should wash your boots anytime you:

• Enter the work area
• Come in from outside
• Come back into the work area after throwing away garbage or offal
• Move between raw, processed and ready-to-eat areas
  

Washing Your Hands

Washing your hands completely is one of the most important things you can do to keep fish and fish products safe.

The ideal hand washing station

There should be hand washing stations in the fish processing areas, washrooms and common areas of the plant. There should be hot and cold running water, liquid soap and/or foam (no bar soap) and paper towel in hands-free dispensers. The sink at this station is to be used for hand washing only.

How to wash your hands:

1. Wet hands and forearms with warm water.
2. Use soap, either liquid or foam.
3. Rub vigorously for 20 seconds.
4. Rinse.
5. Dry your hands with paper towels.
   

When to wash your hands

You need to wash your hands or replace your gloves anytime you:

• Use the washroom
• Eat, drink or smoke
• Cough, sneeze or blow your nose
• Enter or leave the work area
• Change tasks between raw and ready-to-eat products
• Handle soiled equipment
• Pick something up off the floor
• Handle garbage or offal

What Not to Wear – Or Do!

Watches and jewellery should be kept in a separate area where you keep your street clothes. Employees and visitors should not wear watches or other jewellery such as rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings or have body piercings that you can see because:

• Watches and jewellery could fall off and get lost in the fish processing area, equipment or processed and ready-to-eat products.
  
  
• It is hard to clean and sanitize your hands if you are wearing jewellery.
  

Eating, drinking, smoking and chewing gum

Employees and visitors should never eat, drink, smoke or chew gum in any area where fish are being processed or where equipment is being washed. Even healthy people have bacteria in their mouths and when you do something like eat or drink, you could spread bacteria from your mouth to the food or equipment you are handling.

Your workplace should have a separate area where you can safely store the food and drink you bring in from outside. Protect yourself and the fish you process by eating and drinking in that area and always washing your hands when you’re done.

Spitting

If you need to spit, leave the work area and use the washroom or go outside. Remember to wash your hands before you return to the work area.

What is contamination?

Food that is contaminated is not safe to eat.

Food can become contaminated when harmful bacteria or chemicals move from:

• people or equipment onto food, or
• from one food to another

This guidebook is available online in several languages.