What best defines personal hygiene?

• A. Wearing clean clothes at work
• B. Keeping yourself clean
• C. Regularly checking temperatures
• D. Storing food properly

Answer: (B)

Personal hygiene relates to how clean a person is and how that cleanliness protects food from contamination. Keeping yourself clean is the best description because it covers all the everyday practices a person must maintain—washing hands and forearms before handling food, keeping hair restrained, nails trimmed, and wearing clean clothing. If you focus only on having clean clothes, you might still transfer germs through unwashed hands, dirty skin, or loose hair. Temperature checks and proper food storage matter for overall food safety, but they address tools, environments, or processes rather than the cleanliness of the person handling the food. So, keeping yourself clean best defines personal hygiene because it directly targets the habits that prevent contamination at the source.