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Skin problems in catering businesses

Does this concern me?

Yes, it concerns you if:

  • your business prepares/handles a lot of food;
  • your employees have to wash their hands a lot during the day to meet food safety laws;
  • you have employees who clean kitchen surfaces, ovens, pots, pans and kitchen utensils.

Why is this a problem for my catering business?

Work-related dermatitis (often called eczema) is one of the main causes of ill-health for catering staff (chefs, cooks and catering assistants). The number of new cases per year is twice the average of all other industries.

If one of your catering staff had to leave their job because they had developed dermatitis that couldn't be cured, what effect would it have on your business? Remember that work-related ill health can cost more than twice as much as an accident causing injury. Could you afford this?

The good news is that it's easy to prevent dermatitis and if you are following good practice for food safety, you are well on your way to protecting your employees from dermatitis too.

What should I do about it?

Use the APC approach:

  • Avoid direct contact between unprotected hands and cleaning products, water and food where this is sensible and practical. For instance:
    • Use a dishwasher rather than washing up by hand.
    • Use tools such as tongs to handle food rather than hands.
    • Use a food processor for chopping or mixing.
  • Protect the skin. Avoiding contact will not always be possible so:
    • Wear appropriate gloves where you can and particularly when carrying out all cleaning activities.
    • Information on what types of gloves to wear will be supplied with the cleaning products.
    • Where you wear gloves for handling food, remember your food safety training, so wash your hands before and after wearing gloves, avoid cross contamination, use single-use non-latex disposable gloves.
    • Provide soft, disposable paper towels for drying the skin.
    • Also protect the skin by moisturising as often as possible and particularly at the end of the day – this replaces the natural oils that help keep the skin's protective barrier working properly.
    • Use appropriate creams that will not contaminate food or cause cross-contamination, eg from a dispenser, hypoallergenic, and either non-tainting or free of fragrance and free of nut oil.
  • Check hands regularly for the first signs of dermatitis – itchy, dry or red skin:
    • When dermatitis is spotted early, it can be treated, which can stop it from getting too bad.
    • Checking for dermatitis can easily be included in your sickness arrangements for food safety.

Your staff need to know about the simple steps. Training and information resources[60] can help you to inform and train employees.

What about food safety and dermatitis?

You may recognise some of these suggestions, as these are also good food safety techniques. Following the APC approach for preventing dermatitis is similar to the many of the best practice controls promoted for food safety, as demonstrated in the table below.

Examples of good food safety methods APC approach
Dishwashers wash things at a high temperature. This is great for killing bacteria. Avoid direct contact
  • Use a dishwasher rather than washing by hand.
Avoid handling food as much as possible. Hands can easily spread harmful bacteria onto food. Avoid direct contact
  • Use automated processes where practicable, eg mixing / kneading by machine rather than by hand, automatic potato peelers.
  • Use tools for handling food rather than hands, eg tongs, scoops.
Remove jewellery (except wedding bands) for work. Jewellery can collect and spread harmful bacteria or fall in food. Protect the skin
  • Remove jewellery (except wedding bands) for work.
  • Jewellery can trap water and cleaning products next to the skin and cause dermatitis.
Hand hygiene is important for food safety. Dermatitis causes sore hands and workers may not wash them thoroughly or as often because it hurts. Check the skin for early signs of dermatitis
  • Early detection stops serious dermatitis from developing.
  • Early treatment means better recovery.
  • Checks help indicate lapses in controls.

Link URLs in this page

  1. Skin at workhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/index.htm
  2. Overview - Employers, employees and traineeshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/index.htm
  3. Overview - What are work-related skin diseases?https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/whatare.htm
  4. Dermatitishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/dermatitis.htm
  5. Urticariahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/urticaria.htm
  6. Skin cancerhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/cancer.htm
  7. Sun exposurehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/sunprotect.htm
  8. Overview - Latex allergieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/latex.htm
  9. Selecting latex gloveshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/latex-gloves.htm
  10. How does exposure happen?https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/exposure.htm
  11. Overview - How can they be prevented?https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/prevention.htm
  12. Gloveshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/gloves.htm
  13. High-risk jobshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/highrisk/index.htm
  14. What does the law say?https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/law.htm
  15. Overview - H&S and medical professionalshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/index.htm
  16. Overview - Causes of skin diseasehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/index.htm
  17. Causes of Contact dermatitishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/dermatitis.htm
  18. Causes of Contact urticariahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/urticaria.htm
  19. Causes of Acneshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/acnes.htm
  20. Causes of Cancershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/cancers.htm
  21. Causes of Leucoderma (Vitiligo)https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/leucoderma.htm
  22. Structure and functions of the skinhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/structure.htm
  23. Skin infectionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/infections.htm
  24. Overview - Causative agentshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/agents.htm
  25. Skin irritants and sensitisershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/agentstable1.htm
  26. Causes of contact urticariahttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/agentstable2.htm
  27. Agents that cause skin cancerhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/causes/agentstable3.htm
  28. Managing exposure riskshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/managerisk.htm
  29. Legal requirementshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/legal.htm
  30. Information for inspectorshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/inspectors.htm
  31. Training resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/trainingresources.htm
  32. Overview - Resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/information.htm
  33. Publicationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/publications.htm
  34. Postershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/posters.htm
  35. Overview - Case studieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/index.htm
  36. Photographic chemicalshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/photographic.htm
  37. Tiler: Ted's storyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/tiler.htm
  38. Hairdressing: Maxine's storyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/hairdressers.htm
  39. Hairdressing: Julie's storyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/julie-hair.htm
  40. Hairdressing: Marie's storyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/marie-hair.htm
  41. Latex allergies - Nursinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/alison-nursing.htm
  42. Latex allergies - Radiographyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/pip-radiographer.htm
  43. Latex allergies - Dental practicehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/julie-dental.htm
  44. Catering industryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/catering.htm
  45. Meat processinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/meatprocessing.htm
  46. Paint manufacturinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/paint.htm
  47. Fabric coaterhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/casestudies/fabric.htm
  48. Image galleryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/imagelibrary.htm
  49. Statisticshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/statistics.htm
  50. Researchhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/research.htm
  51. Presentationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/presentations.htm
  52. Videoshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/videos.htm
  53. Linkshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/links.htm
  54. Overview - FAQshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/index.htm
  55. General questionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/general.htm
  56. Hairdressing FAQhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/hairdressing.htm
  57. Catering FAQhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/catering.htm
  58. Cleaning FAQhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/cleaning.htm
  59. Dental practice FAQhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/faq/dental.htm
  60. Training and information resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/professional/trainingresources.htm
  61. Skin checks for dermatitis (Free poster)https://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/assets/docs/skindermatitis.pdf
  62. Keep your top on: INDG 147https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg147.pdf
  63. COSHH Essentialshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/index.htm
  64. HSE Bookshttps://books.hse.gov.uk/
  65. The National Eczema Societyhttp://www.eczema.org/
  66. Cateringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/catering/index.htm
  67. Constructionhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm
  68. COSHHhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/index.htm
  69. Health serviceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/healthservices/index.htm
  70. Printinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/printing/index.htm

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Updated 2023-02-16