What should a manager of a take out operation do if a food handler reports having a sore throat and a fever?

Índice Show

Empower Employees Through Food Safety Training
Learning Objectives
Training Activities
The “Why” of Reporting Illness
Symptoms Scenarios
What Is Our Policy?
Following Up
Training Resources
Food handlers – personal hygiene tips
Food handlers – handwashing
Food handler health and working
Food handlers – skills and knowledge
Food handlers – training

Empower Employees Through Food Safety Training

Food workers who go to work sick are a major cause of foodborne illness outbreaks. Use this training to teach your employees the importance of reporting symptoms and staying home from work when they are sick.

Learning Objectives

You may choose to read these learning objectives with your employees as a part of the stand-up training.

After this training, employees will be able to:

Identify symptoms of illness that must be reported to a manager
Recognize illnesses that must be reported to a manager

The Facts

You may choose to read these facts with your employees as a part of the stand-up training.

Keeping sick employees away from food is critical to preventing the spread of foodborne illness along the fecal-oral route.
Food workers should report these symptoms to their manager:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Jaundice (yellowing of the eyes)
- Sore throat with a fever
- An infected wound
An employee is not allowed to work if they have one of the following symptoms:
- Vomiting or diarrhea within the last 24 hours
- Jaundice (yellowing of the eyes)
Food workers who have vomited or had diarrhea within the last 24 hours are likely to spread illness through food they prepare. You should ask them to stay home.
Jaundice could be a sign of a Hepatitis A infection. If a food worker has jaundice, report the symptom to the local regulatory authority—usually your health department. You should also ask the employee to stay home.
If an employee reports a sore throat with a fever, they may come to work, but they should not work with food or food-contact surfaces.
If a food worker has an infected wound, the wound must be appropriately bandaged and covered before the employee can handle food.
Food workers must also report to their manager if they have a Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella, Salmonella, or E. coli infection. Managers must report these diagnoses to the local regulatory authority. The food worker should stay home until the regulatory authority gives them permission to work again.
Food workers who can’t stop coughing or sneezing should not work with food or food-contact surfaces.
Highly susceptible populations have a high risk of contracting foodborne illness. These populations include young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and individuals with illnesses that have weakened their immune systems. Establishments that serve highly susceptible populations (like hospitals and day care centers) need stricter rules for handling employee illness.

Training Activities

Choose the activities that will be most beneficial for your employees. Modify them as needed to fit the training needs of your establishment.

The “Why” of Reporting Illness

Discuss: Why is it important to report when you are sick? Do you remember which illnesses and symptoms you need to report before your shift begins?

Watch: When to Stay Home video

Display (optional): Hang up the Feeling Sick? poster near the time clock or door to remind your employees which symptoms to report before their shift begins.

Symptoms Scenarios

Discuss: For which symptoms would you need to stay home? For which symptoms would you be assigned to work away from food?

Watch (optional): Do I Need to Stay Home? video scenarios

Analyze: If you are watching the video scenarios, pause the video before the answers are revealed so that your employees can guess what needs to happen.

If you prefer, you can present your own food worker illness scenarios for employees to analyze.

Display (optional): Display the Food Worker Illness Flowchart poster as a reminder for when a sick employee would need to stay home. If your establishment serves a highly susceptible population, stricter policies may apply.

What Is Our Policy?

Review: Review the employee health policy at your establishment.

Discuss: Who should you contact when you are ill? How do we organize covering for a sick coworker’s shift?

Invite: Ask employees to share their questions and concerns about the policy. Emphasize the importance of reporting illness honestly and staying home to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks.

Following Up

If you suspect that an employee has come to work sick, approach them with a direct but sympathetic attitude. Express concern for their well-being and ask about their symptoms. If necessary, ask the employee to go home or reassign them to duties away from exposed food and food-contact surfaces. For example, you could assign an employee with a sore throat and a fever to clean floors and windows or to operate the cash register.

Be careful not to punish employees for reporting when they are sick. It’s important that you send them home or restrict their work duties when appropriate, but do not express frustration with them. If employees feel that reporting illness will threaten their job security, they may not be honest with you about their symptoms.

Make sure your shift managers and supervisors can answer questions that other employees may have about reporting symptoms and illnesses. Encourage employees to ask questions when they need help instead of guessing at the right answer.

As needed, review this training with your employees.

Training Resources

The When to Stay Home video describes what illnesses and symptoms must be reported to a food manager to keep customers safe. View the Spanish version of this video: Cuando Quedarse en Casa.

The Do I Need to Stay Home? video scenarios present four hypothetical situations when food workers are feeling sick and aren’t sure if they should come to work. Pause the video to let your employees decide whether to tell the food workers “yes” or “no” and then resume the video to see what happens. View the Spanish version of this video: ¿Debo Quedarme en Casa?

Print out the free Feeling Sick? poster and post it in the break area to remind food workers which symptoms they should report.

The Food Worker Illness Flowchart poster is a handy resource to help managers remember when they should exclude or restrict a sick food worker. Answer the questions on the chart to arrive at the course of action recommended in the FDA Food Code. Note this resource does not cover when you should exclude or restrict employees if your establishment primarily serves a highly susceptible population.

Did you use this stand-up training in your establishment? We’d love to get your feedback! Take a minute to do our feedback survey.

— Alyssa Erickson

Personal hygiene is important to prevent food poisoning.
When handling food, wash your hands thoroughly and often.
If you are sick, do not go to work, because you can contaminate food more easily.
Food handlers should be properly trained in safe food handling.

Good personal hygiene can prevent food poisoning.

Bacteria that cause food poisoning can be on everyone – even healthy people. You can spread bacteria from yourself to the food if you touch your nose, mouth, hair or your clothes, and then food.

Good personal hygiene also makes good business sense. Customers like to see food-handling staff who take hygiene seriously and practise safe food handling.

Watch how your co-workers handle food and consider it from a customer’s point of view. Would you want to eat at, or buy food from, the place you work?

Food handlers – personal hygiene tips

To prevent food poisoning using good personal hygiene, follow these tips:

wash and dry your hands thoroughly before handling food, and wash and dry them again frequently during work
dry your hands with a clean towel, disposable paper towel or under an air dryer
never smoke, chew gum, spit, change a baby’s nappy or eat in a food handling or food storage area
never cough or sneeze over food, or where food is being prepared or stored
wear clean protective clothing, such as an apron
keep your spare clothes and other personal items (including mobile phones) away from where food is stored and prepared
tie back or cover long hair
keep fingernails short so they are easy to clean, and don’t wear nail polish because it can chip into the food
avoid wearing jewellery, or only wear plain-banded rings and sleeper earrings
completely cover all cuts and wounds with a wound strip or bandage (brightly coloured waterproof bandages are recommended)
wear disposable gloves over the top of the wound strip if you have wounds on your hands
change disposable gloves regularly
advise your supervisor if you feel unwell, and don’t handle food.

Food handlers – handwashing

Thoroughly washing your hands reduces the chance of contaminating food with bacteria from yourself.

Wash your hands with soap and warm water, and don’t forget the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.

Thoroughly dry your hands immediately after you wash them. Always dry your hands with a clean towel, disposable paper towel or under an air dryer. The important thing is to make sure your hands are completely dry. Never use a tea towel or your clothes to dry your hands.

Wash your hands after:

going to the toilet
handling raw food
blowing your nose
handling garbage
touching your ears, nose, mouth or other parts of the body
smoking
every break
handling animals.

If you are wearing disposable gloves, change them regularly – at the same times you would normally wash your hands if you weren’t wearing gloves. Wash and dry your hands before putting on gloves.

Food handler health and working

Food handlers may contaminate food, so employers and employees must be careful to ensure that no illness is passed on by those working in the industry.

You should not go work if you are vomiting or have diarrhoea. Don’t return to work until your symptoms have stopped for 48 hours. If you are unsure, you should contact your doctor for advice.

Do not go to work if you sick with an illness that is likely to be transmitted through food. Such illnesses include gastroenteritis (often called ‘gastro’) – including viral gastroenteritis (norovirus or rotavirus) – hepatitis A and hepatitis E, sore throat with fever, and fever with jaundice.

You must advise your supervisor if you are feeling unwell, including when suffering from a cold, flu, and sties and other eye infections.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand explains the requirements for food handlers and food businesses.

Food handlers – skills and knowledge

Food handlers need to know how their actions can affect the safety of the food they handle.

Food handlers need to know:

how to locate and follow workplace information
about their own food handling operations
how to identify and correct (or report) situations or procedures that do not meet the business' food safety obligations
who to report food safety issues to within the business
their responsibilities in relation to health and hygiene requirements.

The Australian Food Safety Standard 3.2.2 (Food Safety Practices and General Requirements) requires that people who handle food must have the appropriate skills and knowledge for the work they do.

Food handlers – training

Everyone working in a food premises are encouraged to be trained in safe food handling. DoFoodSafely , a free online learning program, is a good place to start.

Reviewed 22 November 2021