Free food handler sickness poster
48 hours. GOV.UK's guidance for food businesses says staff with diarrhoea or vomiting must not return to work until they have had no symptoms for 48 hours (Running a food business; Safer food, better business). Staff should tell their manager before their shift if they feel ill.
What the poster says
Tell your manager before your shift, which symptoms keep you away from food, and the 48-hour rule after diarrhoea or vomiting (FSA guidance).
Feeling ill?
Tell your manager before your shift
Don't handle food or go into food areas if you have:
- diarrhoea or vomiting
- stomach pain, feeling sick, a fever, or yellow skin or eyes (jaundice)
- infected cuts, sores or skin
- an infected nose or throat
Also tell your manager if someone you live with has diarrhoea or vomiting.
48 hours
Stay off work until you've had no diarrhoea or vomiting for 48 hours. This is FSA guidance.
Got a cut or sore? Tell your manager and cover it with a brightly coloured waterproof dressing.
Tell:
From FSA guidance: Running a food business: staff training, illness and hygiene (GOV.UK) and Safer food, better business for caterers (Personal hygiene and fitness to work). England and Wales. Checked 11 October 2026.
Free from managero.co.uk
How to use it
- Put it in the staff room, by the rota or at the staff entrance, where people see it before a shift.
- Write in who to tell, and how: a name and a phone number works best.
- Go through it with new starters, so nobody feels they have to come in ill.
Questions café owners ask
- Which symptoms mean a food handler should stay away from food?
- GOV.UK lists diarrhoea, vomiting, infected wounds or sores, stomach pain, nausea, fever or jaundice, infected skin, nose or throat, and any other disease likely to be transmitted through food (Running a food business: staff illness).
- Do staff have to tell me if someone they live with is ill?
- Yes, if it's diarrhoea or vomiting. GOV.UK says staff must also tell their manager if anyone they live with has diarrhoea or vomiting (Running a food business: staff illness).
- Is the 48-hour rule the law?
- The 48 hours is FSA guidance (GOV.UK; Safer food, better business). The law says that a person with a disease likely to be transmitted through food, or with, for example, infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea, must not be permitted to handle food if there is any likelihood of contamination, and must report it to the business straight away (Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter VIII, paragraph 2).
- What should staff do with a cut or sore?
- Tell their manager and cover it completely with a brightly coloured waterproof dressing (Safer food, better business for caterers, "Personal hygiene and fitness to work").
Sources
Every source below was read on 11 October 2026. Where the poster states the law it says so, and where it gives official guidance it says that too.
Keep the records that go with it.
Staff fill in a fitness-to-work form on their phone in managero, signed and kept with their name and the date. £18.99 excl VAT a month for your first site, with managero HR & Safety included.