Sanitation Facilities and Worker Hygiene

Workers should be provided ready access to clean toilet and handwashing facilities.
Sufficient toilet facilities must be provided as regulated by federal occupational safety and health standards for agricultural workers. Each toilet facility should have a handwashing station adequately supplied with soap and disposable towels. Supervisors must insist that workers use toilet facilities.

Workers should use good Hygienic Practices.
To prevent contamination during harvesting, workers should maintain a high degree of cleanliness while on duty by thoroughly washing their hands before starting work and each time after using the toilet. Clean, warm water with soap should be used. Common or shared towels should be not be used.

Clean drinking water that is free of harmful microorganisms should be made available to workers.
Contaminated drinking water may infect workers, who may then contaminate apples during harvesting and handling.

Any worker who has diarrhea, or who is a carrier of a communicable disease that can be transmitted by food, should be allowed to harvest or handle apples.
Supervisors and workers should be aware of the presence of symptoms of infectious diseases or of skin boils, sores, or infected wounds so that if symptoms are evident, the supervisor can remove or reassign the worker.