40% of food illness outbreaks are linked to sick restaurant workers. Few establishments have comprehensive policies in place to prevent contamination, a government analysis found
, most restaurants and food stores with outbreaks required employees to notify managers when they were ill and stopped sick employees from working. But less than a quarter had comprehensive policies for dealing with workers’ illnesses, the researchers found in interviews with managers.
Policies should specify that employees experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, a sore throat with fever or a skin sore containing pus should report to their managers and be restricted from working, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s. Many policies specified vomiting or diarrhea as reportable symptoms, but jaundice—a sign of liver diseases such as foodborne hepatitis A—fevers and sores were addressed less often.
Written policies that address a wider range of suspicious symptoms would reduce outbreaks, researchers said. Regulatory requirements might also increase effectiveness, since officials would more closely inspect policies during inspections. Improving employees’ benefits might also help prevent the spread of illnesses, the researchers said. Food workers have previously reported working when ill because of financial and perceived social pressures. Only about 44% of managers told the researchers that their restaurants provided paid sick leave to workers.
Restaurant managers should prepare staffing plans for when workers are absent and adopt “a food safety culture where absenteeism due to illness is not penalized,” the researchers concluded.
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