Personal Hygiene: HAIR.

Have you ever anticipated a meal at a high end restaurant after having to queue for more than 1 hour and you FINALLY get your food yet you found that there is extra garnish? 

I have entered that at a high end popular japanese ramen store. I also thought that paying a higher price for food means a better quality of food such as higher hygiene standard, where staffs are guarded with high personally grooming standards. However, I was wrong. When the cold appetizer arrived, which is like a cucumber roll extravagantly garnished. As we started eating, with the dim lighting, my friend did not take notice of putting the cucumber roll with a piece of hair into her mouth. As she chews, she found something funny in her mouth and she took it out of her mouth. To our horror, IT WAS A PIECE OF HAIR. We immediately told the waiter about it, and we canceled all of our order. 

Through this incident, I learnt that high grooming standards are very important, this is because it will not reflect well on your store no matter how high standard is the food but without proper hygiene standards, you will still lose your customer. Furthermore, lousy grooming standard can lead to your customer's health at risk after consuming the food.

Hair is a physical hazard because when the hair enter any food item, it can be consume easily as it may not be that visible to the eyes reasoning being its fine and black. 

The human digestive system cannot digest human hair as the protein, which is keratin, is a highly composed structure of protein and it can be digested only in high alkaline or acidic environment with high temperature of about 100 degree celsius which the human digestive system cannot provide, hence, any consumed hair will be retain in the body leading to potential health hazard. 

This is why high personal grooming is important in the kitchen or dining area.

Proper grooming standard:

1. All LADIES will long hair should have their hair neatly with a hair net. 

2. All GUYS will beard should have it tidy and have regular hair cut to prevent falling of hair/beard.

3. GUYS hair should not touch the collar of their chef jacket with their sunburn length not more than half the length of ear.

Appropriate hair grooming standard for ladies.

Not acceptable hair hair grooming standard for ladies.

                                   

Appropriate hair grooming standard for guys.

Not appropriate hair grooming for guys.

Aspects of food premises: Station Cleaniness

For a kitchen, it is important that the work station for food preparation be clean so that any food that is being prepared will not be contaminated by surface bacteria.

Clean bench top

A clean bench top greatly reduces the possibility of cross-contamination.

For example, a dirty bench top could have harmful bacteria like

 1) Salmonella, which is known to come from infected raw poultry

2) Escherichia Coli (commonly known as E.Coli) found on human skin.

 Clean Bench Top which ensures minimal contamination

 Clean Wok Station

It is important that the wok station is cleaned after cooking as any microorganisms from any previous cooking can be present of the surface of the wok station, which may contaminate the ingredients that are placed at the station for cooking.

Kitchen Towels

Towels are a breeding ground for microorganism especially since they're often used to wipe bench tops that have spills or any liquid left by food.

The dirty towels may be left unwashed which might allow for bacterial growth as the towels contain moisture that bacteria thrives on.

Also, the dirty towels may contaminate any surface that it has come into contact with.

To avoid this issue, towels should be washed after every use.

Towels should be washed at the end of the day with a washing machine and dried in a dryer.