Mind the GAP: Worker Health and Hygiene

The GAP audit can be super intimidating, but really, at its essence, there's really just one mantra you need to incorporate to be a successful food safety implementer:

KEEP THE POOP OFF THE FOOD.

That's it, really. Most of the requirements really just revolve around keeping all of the poop (animal and human) off all of the food. The worker health and hygiene section of the audit has to do mainly with the human poop. Here's what the questions on the audit form look like:

You can see most of the questions are around hand-washing. There's also a few questions around smoking, bleeding, and spraying chemicals around your crops. The questions which have N/A grayed out are mandatory and if you fail one of these sections, you will automatically fail the audit. 

Here's what your food safety plan should look like. 

Phew! You guys still with me? I know it seems condescending to have to train employees on how to properly use the restroom, but human fecal contamination is one of the leading causes of food-bourne illness and for this reason, this is one of the most comprehensive sections of the food safety plan. If you start to get overwhelmed, just remember:

KEEP THE POOP OFF THE FOOD.