Drinking in a food business

There seems to be a little bit of conflict between food safety in OH&S, or Occupational Health and Safety, when it comes to allowing food handlers to drink within the production areas. So what drinking provisions are suitable in a Food Business?  In some locations, the environment might be very hot, so you need to supply some level of hydration to the food production staff. What I have generally seen is two acceptable methods, where the first method being a drink station.

Drink Stations

A drink station is where food handlers store, away from the production areas, say bottles of drinks. The main thing around having a drink station is the need to address the issues around allergens, foreign matter, and personal hygiene.

The following conditions should be adhered to if opting for the use of a drink station.

(1) You only allow water at these drink stations and that these drink stations are located separately away from the production area, or away from the top of benches and other production equipment or food.

(2) Making sure that only water is available. You do not want to be introducing, say, flavored milk or other soft drinks, which may contain allergens. You do not want to then be introducing allergens into your production, especially if you do not have those allergens currently present.

(3) Making sure that the actual drinking vessel that is used is not crockery. So, coffee cups, foam mugs, glass items – materials like that.  Have a look at the vessel in which the staff are drinking out of. Logically, you do not want the drinking vessel to end up becoming a potential contamination or foreign matter issue for you food business. This also includes the bottle tops, metal ring pulls or plastic rims.

Fixed Water Fountain

The second area which is recommended is a fixed water fountain. I don’t mean a water fountain as in what you would see out, say, in Hyde Park or in a park somewhere. These are actually designated cooling water tanks – an all in one unit that is contained.

If you are going to opt for one of these drinking provisions, just make sure it is located in an area that is not going to contaminate any of the food or production equipment / utensils. Ideally, food production staff have to move away from the production area. They can use it without using their hands, so you can have a foot operated or knee operated facility in that point. If you cannot have the hands-free operation, the unit should be located in an area that the food handler has to wash their hands straight away afterwards. But the main thing is that the fixed water fountain is located in a separate area away from production.

So, there is just the couple of ways to have and locate drinking provisions and facilities for food handlers. Most of the legislation that I have been involved in will always say there is to be no eating or drinking where food or production equipment can be contaminated. However, as I said at the beginning, there is the battle between Occupational Health and Safety, especially in environments where it is very, very hot and food production staff need to remain hydrated.

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Drinking in a food business”

  1. So if the warehouse office is with in the production area can we still have a water station inside the office with disposable cups? It’s an enclosed office?

    1. Amanda Evans-Lara

      I don’t see a problem with this but please make sure that you check your local food regulations to ensure compliance.

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