Have you thought of your hands as the most important "utensils" above all other restaurant equipment? We use our hands to assemble all of our menu items, and our policy should be a two-part approach to insuring safe hands. First, wash hands correctly, with a 20-second wash method and secondly, use gloves, or a utensil, to handle any ready-to-eat foods, to eliminate contamination by unwashed or poorly washed hands.

Why do we need a back-up barrier to handwashing? Ready-to eat foods are easily contaminated from dirty hands. The human factor of misusing either of our two-step safe hands barriers, is a real concern. Being ill when you are working, or not washing hands after the restroom, are the most common disease routes from hands to food, but there are lots of other ways. What about sweeping the floor and not washing hands before gloving and making a sandwich? - Don't think the customer doesn't notice! Did you ever shake hands with a customer and not wash your hands before gloving? Have you ever made change with a glove on? The customer may wonder if you just did that with his or her food. Hand washing and gloving can easily be abused, so food workers, like medical people, must be ever vigilant at both steps.

And the Survey Says: Do, As I Say - NOT, As I Do! In September, the American Society for Microbiology wanted to know how many people told the truth about their hand washing habits. So volunteers called more than 1,000 people across the country and asked. But then, the sneaky Microbiological Society observers watched people in public restrooms, in 8 cities, to see whether they actually did wash their hands. It turns out that about 1/3 of the people weren't exactly on the up and up.

How do you suppose this survey relates to the food industry? The survey shows that the average of Americans who wash their hands after a visit to the restroom is 67%. The percent probably would be about the same, but with a much higher level of risk when preparing foods. In this same survey, 31% of Americans said they don't wash their hands after coughing or sneezing and 20% admit they don't wash after handling money.

Food workers must follow the 2-part policy of hand washing and gloves, or utensils, to reduce the risk of a foodborne illness. As a 3rd segment to our policy-- Any employee that leaves the food prep area, or does a non-food handling task, MUST wash hands visibly at the food prep handsink again, before handling food, even if they just washed them in the restroom. Customers, other workers and managers MUST see that hand washing is done before handling any foods and before gloving your hands. MANAGERS MUST SET PROPER EXAMPLES FOR HANDWASHING AND NO BARE HAND CONTACT WITH READY-TO-EAT FOODS!