Station Sign: Vegetables

Why you need it

Soil on vegetables can carry harmful bacteria, including E. coli. If it reaches ready-to-eat food, clean equipment or other work areas, it can make people ill.

FSA guidance treats soil-covered vegetables as a source of contamination that needs its own area and equipment, kept apart from ready-to-eat preparation.

What it’s for

A station sign for unwashed and raw vegetables: brown board and utensils, dirty and clean work kept apart, produce washed in the designated sink, and a clean-down before moving on. It also covers moving washed produce to a clean area in clean containers.

How to use it

1. Fix it at the vegetable prep bench, ideally beside the vegetable sink and close to where sacks of vegetables are stored.
2. Keep this station as far as you can from the salad and cooked meat benches.
3. Clear peelings and soil as you go, then clean and disinfect the bench and board before anything else is prepared there.
4. Move washed vegetables on in clean containers, not the ones they arrived in.
5. Wipe the laminated sign often, as soil and splashes build up here.