Panaji: April 16, 2018 … Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration has advised food handler, food sellers and others to avoid handling currency and food simultaneously.
Currency notes and coins are widely exchanged for goods and services by all sections of society. Handling of currency with unclean and soiled hands, use of saliva during counting, and storage under unhygienic conditions leads to its contamination with harmful microorganisms. Cross contamination from currency is a risk to human health leading to a wide variety of disease including food poisoning and skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. Children, pregnant women, aged and immune-compromised person are particularly vulnerable to such infections.
FDA has further stated that food vendors, especially street food vendors, often prepare and serve food, and collect money from patrons using the same hand. Hence it is recommended that gloves be used to handle food and bare hands be used to handle currency. Ideally, handling of food and money should be physically separated. After handling currency, hands should be thoroughly washed before touching food and vice versa.
