There are many occasions during Food preparation, cooking and serving that hands must be washed. There are two systems for washing one’s hands, the single hand wash system and the double and wash system. The single hand wash system is used when the hands are not classed as heavily contaminated for example:
Touching hair, face or nose.
Smoking.
Eating, coughing and sneezing.
Blowing the nose.
Cleaning activities.
Handling waste material.
Handling money including coins or notes which harbour bacteria and viruses.
Handling external packaging.
The double hand wash system is used when the hands are heavily contaminated for example:
- After entering kitchen or Food production area.
- Using the toilet.
- Handling raw food (such as raw meat or soil contaminated vegetables).
- Changing a dressing (either a customer or colleague).
- Dealing with an ill customer who may be vomiting (vomit contains many bacterial particles).
- Handling faecal material such as a dirty nappy or other animal excrement.
The single hand wash system consists of several steps:
Wet hands with warm running water, the temperature of the water is for comfort purposes only.
Ensure only liquid soap is used from a disposable container. Do not use refillable soap containers as mould growth will appear after a period of time. Do not use solid bar soap as particles could fall off and act as a physical contaminant and mould growth can also occur.
Use a soft nylon filament nail brush with an artificial back such as plastic or nylon. Do not use wood as this absorbs moisture and can harbour bacteria. Although food safety legislation does not stipulate using nail brush, it is the best way to clean one’s nails.
Place some liquid soap on the nail brush and build up a lather.
Brush the front and backs of the nails with the nail brush and under the nails.
Rinse fingers and nail brush.
Place liquid soap on the hands.
Build up a good lather and clean the fronts and packs of hands, between the fingers, both thumbs and all exposed parts of the hands and arms.
Rinse off soap
Use paper towel to dry hands.
Always dry your hands after washing as some bacteria will still be present. Scientists have shown that the number of bacteria can be reduced from 100 to 1 between rinsing and paper-towel drying. It is preferable to use paper towels than electric air-dryers or material towels, especially the roller towels, which jam quite often. The electric air-dryers take too long to dry one’s hands and they are not environmentally friendly due to the power consumption and heat from the dryer can permit further bacterial growth on nearby surfaces. Electric dryers also aerosol water and bacteria on the hands, enabling the particulates to become airborne.
A double hand wash system is repeating the process twice. After rinsing hands apply soap to nailbrush and repeat the process. If the taps are hand operated, turn off the taps with the paper towel, to prevent re-contamination of hands.
Do not use bacteriacidal soaps as they contain chemicals which have been shown to take at least 2 minutes to become effective. The double hand wash system only takes up to 1.5 min and therefore the bacteriacide is flushed into the water supply, having a damaging effect on the environment’s natural flora and fauna. Do not use alcohol gels as they can cause dermatitis. Also, they are not effective in killing bacteria if the hands are dirty or greasy. Alcohol has a broad-based spectrum which means it kills commensal bacteria as well as pathogens. The more chemicals we use in our fight against pathogens means they will mutate further thus gaining immunity to those chemicals. This is why we have MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in hospitals, due to over-prescription/use of antibiotics, which this pathogen has built up an immunity to.
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