Hygiene Training

Hygiene training is gener­ally rele­vant for all persons who come into contact with food (produc­tion, processing, or placing on the market) or related consumer goods (e.g., dishes, kitchen machines, cooking uten­sils). Employees must be trained in infec­tion control and food hygiene before they first start work and at regular inter­vals thereafter.

This regu­la­tion applies to all employees working in food produc­tion, food retail and whole­sale, and food­ser­vice. More­over, this applies equally to all company employees: whether tempo­rary or seasonal workers or the food busi­ness oper­ator himself, all must undergo regular hygiene training. The compe­tent author­i­ties can demand proof of exper­tise at any time.

In Germany there are two manda­tory training courses in partic­ular that need to be taken into account here:

1. Instruc­tion according to § 43 Infec­tion Protec­tion Law – the initial instruc­tion must be carried out by the public health depart­ment or by a physi­cian appointed by the public health depart­ment, the follow-up instruc­tion, on the other hand, can be carried out by the employer or by a third party; here, a 2‑year cycle of follow-up instruc­tion must be observed (§ 43 Para­graph 4 Infec­tion Protec­tion Law).
2. Training on food hygiene according to EU Regu­la­tion (EC) No. 852/2004 – the regu­la­tions are listed in partic­ular in Annex II Chapter XII No. 1. This training must include all hygiene areas, i.e. food, personnel, and equip­ment hygiene. On the federal level, this regu­la­tion is imple­mented in the Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion, in partic­ular, § 4 of the Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion comes into play here. These train­ings may also be carried out by an external expert.

However, the LMHV also provides excep­tions for hygiene training: the oblig­a­tion to train does not apply if only pack­aged food is weighed, measured, stamped, or placed on the market, as well as in the primary produc­tion of food.

In addi­tion, persons who have completed scien­tific training or tech­nical voca­tional training are also exempt from this oblig­a­tion. Here it is assumed that they have already acquired suffi­cient exper­tise in the field of food handling, including food hygiene, during their education.

In addi­tion to the food industry, other sectors should also offer hygiene training for their employees. This also includes compa­nies from the cosmetics or phar­ma­ceu­tical industry.

For cosmetics manu­fac­turers, DIN EN ISO 22716 (cosmetics GMP) provides guide­lines for the produc­tion of cosmetic prod­ucts. The compa­nies are required to intro­duce a hygiene concept and to train their employees accord­ingly in order to ensure a high level of product safety.

The EU GMP guide­lines also stip­u­late that employees in drug produc­tion must attend regular training courses.

Further­more, they must be instructed in the basics of GMP-rele­vant activ­i­ties before their first use. This guar­an­tees that consumers are not exposed to any risk of inad­e­quate manu­fac­turing quality at any time.

In order to ensure food safety and thus protect consumers from food-related health hazards, various regu­la­tions have been adopted at Euro­pean and national level.

What is the Food Hygiene Regulation?

In Germany, the legal frame­work is regu­lated in the afore­men­tioned Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion and the Animal Food Hygiene Ordi­nance. § 2 of the Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion also regu­lates, among other things, what consti­tutes a perish­able food: a food that is easily perish­able in a short period of time from a micro­bi­o­log­ical point of view and whose marketability can only be main­tained if certain temper­a­tures or other condi­tions are maintained.

According to the Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion, persons must have the following specialist knowl­edge in accor­dance with their respec­tive activities:

1. Prop­er­ties and compo­si­tion of the respec­tive food
2. Hygienic require­ments for the produc­tion and processing of the respec­tive foodstuff
3. Legal basics of the food law
4. Inspec­tion of goods, shelf life testing and labeling
5. Execu­tion of in-house controls and traceability
6. Emer­gency plan, crisis management
7. Hygienic treat­ment of the respec­tive food
8. Require­ments for cooling and storage of the respec­tive food
9. Correct handling of food waste, ined­ible by-prod­ucts and other wastes
10. Measures for cleaning and disinfection

The LMHV is primarily based on the following three regu­la­tions at the EU level:

• Regu­la­tion (EC) No. 178/2002 – Basic Regu­la­tion; Regu­la­tion laying down the general prin­ci­ples and require­ments of food law
• Regu­la­tion (EC) No. 852/2004 – General Regu­la­tion on the hygiene of foodstuffs
• Regu­la­tion (EC) No. 853/2004 – Regu­la­tion on the hygiene of food­stuffs of animal origin

Which norms and stan­dards must be complied with in food processing plants or similar?

In food processing compa­nies, a whole range of stan­dards must be complied with, each of which deals with specific areas. Among them are, for example, specific stan­dards on communal catering, types of machinery (cutter, vegetable peeler, etc.), or even work clothing.

Some German DIN stan­dards relating to food hygiene are listed here as examples:

• DIN 10505 – Require­ments for the venti­la­tion equip­ment of sales outlets open to the market or street, in which mainly unpacked food is offered for sale
• DIN 10508 – require­ments for maximum temper­a­tures for deep-frozen, frozen and chilled food­stuffs as well as minimum temper­a­tures for food­stuffs kept hot
• DIN 10514 – is intended to facil­i­tate the imple­men­ta­tion of training measures in connec­tion with Regu­la­tion (EC) No. 852/2004 and the Food Hygiene Regu­la­tion.
• DIN 10516 – compli­ance with hygienic condi­tions when handling foodstuffs

In 2019, more than 500 million food estab­lish­ments were inspected by the moni­toring author­i­ties of the federal states.

The complaints of the author­i­ties were mainly due to viola­tions of hygiene regu­la­tions, espe­cially in the general oper­a­tional hygiene as well as the existing hygiene manage­ment. Poten­tially cont­a­m­i­nated food­stuffs were the result. These did not have to be explic­itly proven to result in a complaint by the authorities.

The training courses can be conducted by external consul­tants or by appro­pri­ately trained employees of your own company.

The hygiene experts at Tentamus deal exclu­sively and compre­hen­sively with their respec­tive areas of exper­tise and there­fore bring in-depth knowl­edge of the current state of the law. This means that you are always up to date with the latest ordi­nances and regu­la­tions, and can look forward to the next inspec­tion with confidence.

In our hygiene training courses we primarily teach you the following contents:

1. Basics of microbiology
2. Getting to know the most impor­tant basic legal requirements
3. Good hygiene prac­tice based on the flow of goods (goods receipt, prepa­ra­tion, produc­tion, issue, distribution)
4. Docu­ments required for traceability
5. Personnel hygiene
6. Cleaning and disinfection
7. Preven­tion and reac­tion in case of pests
8. Follow-up instruc­tion according to § 43 para­graph 4 Infec­tion Protec­tion Law

In Germany, the training meets the require­ments of a follow-up instruc­tion according to § 43 Infec­tion Protec­tion Law. After successful partic­i­pa­tion, the training partic­i­pants receive a certifi­cate that can be used as documentation.

Whether at your site, in our training rooms, or online – you can deter­mine the training loca­tion your­self. We offer training courses tailored to the indi­vidual needs of your company.

When taking up an activity or a new area of respon­si­bility, initial training must first take place (if no rele­vant exper­tise for the area of respon­si­bility can be proven).

There­after, follow-up training must take place at regular inter­vals, but at least every two years. These are neces­sary in order to keep the personnel contin­u­ously up to date with the latest knowl­edge of the legal basis. In addi­tion, regular refreshers ensure that existing knowl­edge is not forgotten. This is the only way to ensure seam­less quality manage­ment in the long term.

The training courses can also be conducted conve­niently online. The prac­tice-oriented and cost-effec­tive training courses are avail­able to you at any time, regard­less of loca­tion. This means that you and your employees do not have to travel to and from the training. This saves both personnel and finan­cial resources.

The following loca­tions from the Tentamus Group offer hygiene training: