Health requirements for personnel handling foodstuffs

The Infection Protection Act prescribes health requirements for staff in food processing companies. This is to prevent pathogens from being transferred to food and thus to other people.

The following persons may not work or be employed in the handling of food:

  • Persons suffering from or suspected of suffering from typhoid abdominalis, paratyphoid fever, cholera, shigella dysentery, salmonellosis, types of infectious gastroenteritis or viral hepatitis A or E
  • Persons who have infected wounds or skin diseases whose pathogens are transmissible through food
  • Persons who excrete the following pathogens:
    • Shigella
    • Salmonella
    • enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli
    • Cholera vibrios

The following foodstuffs are considered foodstuffs within the meaning of the Infection Protection Act:

  • Meat, poultry meat and products thereof
  • Milk and milk-based products
  • Fish, crustaceans, molluscs and products thereof
  • Egg products
  • Baby and infant food
  • Ice cream and semi-ice cream products
  • Baked goods with fillings or toppings that are not baked through or heated through
  • Delicatessen, raw vegetable and potato salads, marinades, mayonnaises, emulsified sauces and nutritional yeasts
  • Sprouts and germ buds for raw consumption and seeds for the production of sprouts and germ buds for raw consumption

Note: Provided that measures are taken to prevent the transmission of the diseases to the foodstuffs, the health authority may issue exemptions from these prohibitions on activities and employment.

Instruction and certification

Instruction and certification in accordance with the Infection Protection Act is required for handling food.

Related forms and processes

Prerequisite

  • You are employed in an establishment that manufactures, handles or places food on the market and you come into contact with the food in the process, or
  • You are employed in kitchens of restaurants and other establishments with or for communal catering.

If you are employed in a job where you come into contact with consumer goods such as crockery in such a way that a disease can be transmitted to food as a result, the employment bans may also apply to you.

Responsible department

  • for the verification of health requirements: the public health authority
    public health authority,
    • if you live in Stuttgart, Mannheim or Heilbronn: the respective city administration
    • otherwise: the district office
  • for compliance with hygiene regulations: the lower food supervisory authority
    is the lower food supervisory authority,
    • if you live in a city district: the city administration
    • if you live in a rural district: the Landratsamt (district administration office)

Procedure

As an employee, you must inform your employer immediately as soon as you are suspected of having one of the above-mentioned diseases.

As an employer, if you suspect cases of disease among your staff, you must immediately take measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

In addition, you must instruct your staff about the health requirements after they start work and every two years thereafter and document this instruction.

Deadlines

none

Required documents

none

Costs

none

Miscellaneous

none

Appeal

no

Release note

01.09.2023; Sozialministerium Baden-Württemberg