Food hygiene

Hygiene is the top priority when handling food! Carelessness in this area can lead to serious infectious diseases (e.g. salmonella infections), which can be life-threatening, especially for small children or elderly people. A very large group of people can also quickly be affected by an infection.

Hygiene regulations apply to anyone who produces, manufactures, handles or places food on the market (e.g. milk producers, butchers, restaurants). Anyone who produces, handles or places food on the market is obliged to carry out regular in-house hygiene checks. Only persons trained in food hygiene may be employed.

Particularly strict hygiene regulations must be observed when handling open and freshly prepared food. Pathogens can multiply very easily, for example, in meat, dairy products, eggs, ice cream, delicatessen salads, mayonnaises, sauces, fish or in baked goods with underbaked fillings (e.g. cream pies).

If you have doubts in specific cases (e.g. in the food trade, at a street festival or in a restaurant) as to whether hygiene requirements are being met, or if you have health problems after eating something specific, you can contact the food monitoring authority. You can find out more about this topic in the service description "Food monitoring - consumer complaints".

The hygiene regulations for handling food cover the entire food chain and concern the following areas:

• Feed production and application
• Animal health of food-producing animals
• Primary production (extraction of food by the farmer, fishery farmer, hunter, etc.)
• Food processing premises and equipment
• Handling food
• Personal hygiene (infection control)

Note: As the provisions of hygiene law are very detailed, you will only find exemplary excerpts here. Further information on the food chain and the interaction between food business operators, monitoring authorities and consumers can be found, for example, in the annual report on the integrated multi-annual individual control plan of the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection

Operating sites and facilities

Premises and associated facilities (e.g. sanitary facilities) must be clean, adequately ventilated and illuminated. Floors, windows and work surfaces must be easy to clean at all times.

Food must not be adversely affected by anything (e.g. pathogens or spoilage agents, but also odours, dust or pests). Open food must be protected from coughing, sneezing, dust and the like (e.g. by a cover).

Facilities must also be available to clean or, if necessary, disinfect dishes and other equipment at any time.

Handling food

When handling food, care must be taken to ensure that it is not adversely affected (e.g. by microbial contamination or unhygienic storage conditions, such as in unclean containers). Staff shall comply with the provisions of staff hygiene.

All items that come into contact with food must be clean and undamaged at all times and must not adversely affect it.

In the case of transport containers or other containers for storing food, make sure that they can maintain the required temperature at all times (e.g. when freezing or keeping food warm).

Personal hygiene

Staff must comply with the requirements for personal hygiene and the provisions of the Infection Protection Act, for example:

• clean and suitable work clothes (headgear when handling unpacked perishable food)
• regular cleaning of hands
  Hands must always be washed before starting work, after each visit to the toilet and after working with raw meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Disposable towels must be available for drying.

Only persons who do not have any diseases or signs of such diseases that can be transmitted through food may come into contact with food.

• Food control - Consumer complaint