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Audit template in the LeanSuite app

Last reviewed

Personal hygiene checklist for food plants

A personal hygiene checklist for a food plant is an audit of how people dress, wash and behave in the production area. Its 10 questions fall into three groups: clothing and appearance (clean protective clothing, hair and beard covers, no jewelry or watches, short clean nails), hand washing and gloves, with cuts covered by a blue plaster, and behavior and health, including eating, drinking and smoking, reporting illness and holding visitors and contractors to the same rules.

In the US, 21 CFR 117.10 sets the personnel rules for food plants, covering cleanliness, hair restraints, jewelry and illness. A QA technician or the area lead runs this weekly by watching people at work, not by asking them. What a failure looks like on the line: a ring under a glove, a hairnet worn with the fringe out, a gloved hand that touches the floor and goes straight back to product, or a contractor walking in from the yard past the boot wash. Each is a contamination complaint waiting to happen.

What it is for, as built: Audit staff hygiene practice in a food or packaging area.

Use this template in LeanSuite

The full question list

The 10 questions in the audit

Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A. Each No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, so the finding arrives with its evidence.

Clothing and appearance

  1. 1Clean protective clothing and hair covering are worn correctly
  2. 2Beard covers are worn where needed
  3. 3Jewellery and watches are not worn
  4. 4Nails are short and clean with no polish or false nails

Hand washing

  1. 5Hands are washed at the right times and in the right way
  2. 6Gloves are changed and disposed of as required
  3. 7Cuts and wounds are covered with a blue plaster

Behaviour and health

  1. 8No eating, drinking or smoking in production areas
  2. 9Ill staff report it and follow the exclusion rule
  3. 10Visitors and contractors follow the same rules

Worked example, illustrative

A filled-in example

One section as it might be filled in on the floor, with every other section of the audit answered Yes. The place and finding are made up to show how the audit reads and scores.

Result: pass, 80% against a pass mark of 80

  • 10 questions, all of them count.
  • 2 answered No, so 8 of 10 are Yes: 8 ÷ 10 = 80%.
  • 80% is at or above 80, so the audit passes. The Nos still need their fix.

What happened next: Line lead stopped the operator, gloves changed and a blue plaster fitted, the open tray held for QA, hygiene refresher the same shift.

Scored here as one point per question with N/A left out. In the app each answer carries the points set on the template, so change them after you clone it if your plant weighs some checks more.

Personal Hygiene Audit

Audit, weekly

Area
Packing hall, Line 3

Hand washing

  1. Hands are washed at the right times and in the right wayYes
  2. Gloves are changed and disposed of as requiredNo
  3. Cuts and wounds are covered with a blue plasterNo

    Comment: Operator picked up a dropped tray from the floor and went back to packing in the same gloves. Small cut on a thumb covered with a skin-coloured plaster.

    Photo attached to each No

Drawn from this template's own questions, not a screenshot of the app. Illustrative answers.

When to use it

  • Once a week.
  • An auditor or leader answers each question from what they see, hear and read in the area.
  • Each record starts with: Area.

How it is scored

The template is built with points per answer and a pass mark of 80. In this library every audit is set to pass at 80 and every inspection at 90. Each submitted audit shows its score and pass or fail, and every No is flagged with its photo and comment.

Change the points or the pass mark after you clone it. How rules and scoring work.

Read and print

More in quality and food safety

All quality and food safety templates

FAQ

Personal hygiene checklist for food plants: common questions

  1. Weekly per production area, at different times of day so you see start of shift, after breaks and the night crew. Do an extra round when new or agency staff start, when contractors are on site, after a customer complaint about foreign material or a positive swab, and in the first week after the rules or the PPE change.

  2. A QA technician or the area lead, watching people at work from the line side rather than asking them. They need to know the site's hygiene rules in detail, the right hand wash sequence and timing, and the illness exclusion rule. Findings go to the QA manager and the shift supervisor of the person seen, because repeat findings point to training or supervision rather than one individual.

  3. A fail means a contamination route is open: a ring under a glove, hair outside the net, a cut without a blue plaster, someone working while ill. Correct the person at once, before they touch product again, and if product was exposed hold it for QA to decide. Then the supervisor fixes the cause, usually supply or training. In this template every No is flagged and asks for a photo and a comment, and an audit that scores under its pass mark of 80 is a fail.

  4. Keep the area, date and time, the auditor, what was seen and on which line, any product held, and the retraining or supply fix that followed. Customer auditors ask for this history, and the trend by shift and area shows whether the briefing is reaching the night crew and the contractors. In LeanSuite each submitted audit is stored with its score, its pass or fail, and the photo and comment on every No.

  5. 10 questions in 3 sections: clothing and appearance, hand washing, and behaviour and health. Every question is answered Yes, No or N/A.

Use this template in LeanSuite

It is ready in the Template Marketplace inside Lean Creator as “Personal Hygiene Audit”. Clone it into your plant, change any question, then schedule it to a person, role or asset with reminders. Auditors complete it on a phone or tablet, with photo evidence where required.

Not on LeanSuite yet? On a 90-day pilot our team sets up your account and digitizes the forms and checklists you use today, this one included.

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