Food Handler Health Assessments

Food handler health assessments: your questions answered

Do food handlers need a health check by law?

Food hygiene law does not name a specific test, but it does require that no one handles food while they have, or carry, an illness that could be passed on through it, and that staff report such illness to you. The Food Standards Agency’s guidance says the practical way to meet that is a health questionnaire before someone starts work and a check when they return after illness or from abroad. Environmental health officers ask to see how you do this, and BRCGS, SALSA and most major customers audit it.

Who counts as a food handler?

Anyone who handles open or ready-to-eat food, or works in an area where food is prepared, produced or packed, whether or not they touch it directly: chefs and kitchen porters, production and packing staff, bakery staff, counter and deli staff, cleaners in food areas and anyone else who could contaminate food. Staff who only handle sealed, packaged food are lower risk, but many employers include them for simplicity.

What is a food handler fitness to work questionnaire?

The set of questions the Food Standards Agency recommends employers ask: recent diarrhoea or vomiting, current skin infections or discharge from the eyes, ears or mouth, recurring bowel or skin conditions, typhoid or paratyphoid history, and contact with anyone who may have it. We add questions on jaundice, recent travel, past food-borne infections, wounds, medicines and glove or food allergies, and our nurses review every answer that needs clinical judgement.

What happens if a worker has had diarrhoea or vomiting?

They should not handle food or enter a food area until 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped. Our certificate says so, with a date they can return. The serious infections take longer: typhoid, paratyphoid and E. coli O157 need medical clearance with stool samples before the worker goes back to food handling, which can take weeks or more, and hepatitis A means seven days off from the start of jaundice. We explain what is needed and tell you when the worker is cleared.

Do we need to reassess staff after illness or holidays abroad?

Yes. The FSA guidance asks for a check when someone returns after sickness, and after falling ill abroad or on return. Email us the worker’s name and we send them a short return-to-work questionnaire, reviewed by a nurse with a phone call where needed, and you have the certificate within one working day.

Do kitchen staff need skin checks for dermatitis?

Where staff regularly have their hands wet or in gloves, wash their hands very often or use cleaning chemicals, yes. Dermatitis is one of the most common work-related illnesses in catering, and COSHH requires health surveillance where there is that risk. Our assessment provides the questionnaire and nurse review, and we give you a one-page hand-check sheet so a trained person on your team can look at hands between assessments, which is what the HSE expects.

Do bakery staff need lung function tests?

Anyone regularly exposed to flour dust, grain dust, enzymes or other respiratory sensitisers needs respiratory health surveillance under COSHH, because these substances cause occupational asthma. For most staff that is a symptom questionnaire, ideally before they start, again at six and twelve weeks, then yearly. Where exposure is higher, for example weighing, mixing and sieving, or where anyone reports symptoms, the HSE recommends spirometry as well. We do spirometry at our clinic or on site.

Our night shift staff already have a night worker assessment. Do they need this too?

If they handle food they need the fitness to work check, and if they do wet work or work with flour dust they need the skin and breathing checks. Our assessment includes the night worker section, so you can cover everything in one questionnaire rather than running two. If they have had a night worker assessment with us in the last year we simply leave that section out.

Will I see my employees’ health information?

No. You receive a certificate showing the outcome of each part of the check, any adjustments we recommend and the next due date, never a worker’s answers or medical details. Occupational health records are confidential to the worker and to us, and the results of health surveillance are only ever disclosed to you as fitness outcomes.

How often does the assessment need repeating?

Once a year is the norm for all four parts, with a return-to-work check after any relevant illness and an earlier reassessment if someone’s health, medicines or job changes. New starters exposed to flour dust or wet work benefit from repeat questionnaires at six and twelve weeks, when sensitisation and dermatitis are most likely to appear. We remind you a month before anything falls due.

How much does a food handler health assessment cost?

£95 per completed assessment for up to 9 workers, £85 each for 10 to 24, and £75 each for 25 or more on one list. That is one price per worker whether they need one part of the check or all four. For 50 or more, or a rolling annual programme, ask us for a quote. There is no minimum number, and you only pay for assessments that are completed. A return-to-work review after illness is £75 per worker.

Do agency and temporary kitchen staff need an assessment?

Yes, if they handle food. The food business is responsible for who works in its food areas; for the night worker assessment the duty sits with whoever pays the worker, usually the agency; and for skin and breathing surveillance both the agency and the business the worker is placed with have duties. Agencies use our service to assess the staff they supply once, and share the certificate with each client.

How long do I need to keep the records?

Health surveillance records for skin and breathing must be kept for at least 40 years from the last entry. Night worker assessment records must be kept for two years. Fitness to work checks form part of your food safety management records. Our register gives you all of them in one document whenever you need it.

How long does it take?

Once we have agreed the details and received your list, we send each worker their questionnaire link. Workers have 14 days to complete it, and you typically receive each certificate within three working days of completion, often sooner. If our nurse needs to speak to the worker, or a case needs an occupational health physician’s opinion, it can take longer, and we will let you know. Results are sent during working hours, Monday to Friday.