Letters to the Editor |
Code of practice for food handler activities
Dear Sir,We consider that Smith [1] and his colleagues have produced a very practical guide to the minimum standards for food handler suitability and activities in food businesses. Within our business, the advice aligns very closely with our present approach and is a useful confirmation of best practice across the food industry.
We would like to point out a difference in the advice from that currently recommended by the Health Protection Agency, specifically from a working group of the former Public Health Laboratory Service Advisory Committee on Gastrointestinal Infections [2] and the Code of Practice. For Shigella, the current advice recommends that cases of Shigella sonnei are excluded for 48 h after first normal stool. For Shigella dysenteriae, Shigella flexneri and Shigella boydii (risk groups A and D), exclusion should be until two negative faecal specimens, taken at intervals not less than 48 h, have been confirmed.
It is likely that Smith and colleagues did not have access to the latest advice at the time of producing the guidance, relying instead on the previous advice published in October 1995 [3].
Workfit, The Old Bakery, St Andrews Street South, Bury St Edmunds IP33 3PH, UK
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT, UK
e-mail: chris.sharp{at}clara.co.uk
References
- Smith TA et al. Code of Practice for food handler activities. Occup Med (Lond) 2005;55:369–370.
- Working Group of the Former PHLS Advisory Committee on Gastrointestinal Infections. Preventing person-to-person spread following gastrointestinal infections: guidelines for public health physicians and environmental health officers. Commun Dis Public Health 2004;7:362–384.[Medline]
- The prevention of human transmission of gastrointestinal infections, infestations, and bacterial intoxications: a guide for public health physicians and environmental health officers in England and Wales. Commun Dis Rep Rev 1995;5:R167.
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