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Rob E  
#1 Posted : 08 September 2014 14:29:44(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Rob E

I have a member of staff who works in food preparation in the company kitchen She has visited a relative in hospital who has contracted MRSA along side the original condition for which he was admitted.. She is concerned that she may infect the food chain and other staff. Whilst admirable sentiments, can anyone offer some quick and sound advice. We can utilise her elsewhere in the building. Neither GP or local walk in centre will offer any tests or advice! There seems to be divided opinion amongst Health and Safety professionals I have spoken to. Does anyone have specialist knowledge please and can offer some sound advice?
Xavier123  
#2 Posted : 08 September 2014 16:53:43(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Xavier123

I can't say its 'specialist advice' but I wouldn't have thought the fundamentals are any different from non resistant staph aureus. This is a known food poisoning bacteria BUT critically its found on everyone pretty much all the time. This is why there is a need to wash hands before handling food.
The main point of infection is into cuts etc. which is why it is frequently associated with wounds in a hospital or care environment.
Once beyond the skin and into tissue it can get nasty in a way that it can't when it is merely outside the skin. So cuts/wounds etc. on your individual and those they may contact might be my focus. But this is still not fundamentally different from normal SA infections....
On food, and under the right conditions, it produces a toxin which is then what makes a person ill upon eating it.

As I said, not specialist advice on MRSA, but I'm not sure I see that its clinical 'methicillin resistant' status makes a huge difference to food.

I couldn't find much online in a 5 minute targeted search to back up or disprove these comments e.g. is MRSA more perpetual than normal SA on food?
jwk  
#3 Posted : 08 September 2014 16:56:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

Afternoon Rob,

Not an expert but worked in healthcare for 10 years where MRSA was a live issue. MRSA is only a problem where the bacterium enters deep wounds, or where it can penetrate the skin of people with compromised immune systems. I am not aware that it presents any risk at all if eaten; it is not a food hygiene issue.

A good proportion of the population (I have heard 25%) carry MRSA on their skin in any case, with no ill effects, as it is a common strain of a bacterium (staphylococcus aureusis) which lives happily on skin, mostly causing nothing but the occasional pimple. I find it hard to imagine how MRSA could be transmitted from food to skin in any event, and simple good food hygiene practice would take care of it.

I can't see cause for concern here, unless one of the real experts in this field tell me otherwise,

John
jwk  
#4 Posted : 08 September 2014 16:58:57(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

OK, so it can cause food poisoning, but this is as Xavier says just the same as normal Staph aureusis. It won't colonise people from food, most cases of MRSA infection are from existing colonies on people's own skins, and they get there from dirty hospital wards (much cleaner now which is why the incidence is dropping), not from food provided normal safe food procedures are followed,

John
chris.packham  
#5 Posted : 09 September 2014 11:40:14(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris.packham

Provided your employee takes the normal hand hygiene precautions there should be no significant risk of transferring MRSA to the food being handled. If you feel an extra precaution might instill confidence get her to use an alcohol sanitising foam after her first handwash on arriving at work.
Chris
Bushell33243  
#6 Posted : 09 September 2014 17:04:22(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
Bushell33243

I refer you to

REGULATION (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs,2004 Chapter X paragraph 2
“No person suffering from, or being a carrier of a disease likely to be transmitted through food or afflicted, for example, with infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea is to be permitted to handle food or enter any food-handling area in any capacity if there is any likelihood of direct or indirect contamination…”.

So unless someone has been diagnosed as having an MRSA infection or carrying the bacterium, exclusion, from a LEGAL perspective, would seem to be unnecessary. Reading the FSA’s Food Handlers: Fitness to Work Regulatory Guidance and Best Practice Advice 2008 one comes to the same conclusion.

From a RISK perspective the CDC, USA offer the following reassurance on the MRSA as a food borne infection.

“Most MRSA cases are skin and soft tissue non-life-threatening infections that are spread between people in the community through skin-to-skin contact….. to date, there have not been any documented cases of people getting MRSA from eating food that contains MRSA….”
(http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/organisms/mrsa-and-food-products.html. Page last updated: June 27, 2011)

And in the Royal college of Physicians 2008 publication Infected food handlers: Occupational aspects of management. A national guideline it is concluded that “poor hygiene practices, in particular hand washing, by food handlers at mass catering events, were identified as a cause of outbreaks of Staphylococcus aureus…” and that in their study “there was no evidence that food handlers with skin conditions affecting hands, arms or face, boils, styes, cut or septic fingers, or discharges from eyes, ears, gums or mouth, were associated with infecting food”
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