Hand hygiene in food preparation areas
August 1st 2005

Jaana Tiura, product group manager of Metsä Tissue, producers of Katrin hand towels discusses the fact that food prepared in restaurants and catering environments can be easily contaminated when handled, putting customers at serious risk of food poisoning.

Maintaining high standards of hand hygiene is essential to preventing the spread of bacteria within food preparation environments. The Food Standards Agency UK recommends that staff working in kitchens, ‘Should wash and dry your hands regularly when handling food, in particular: before 54 Food Hygiene 331 or www.cleaning-matters.com/enquiry T e l : 0 8 0 0 2 6 94 7 0 334 or www.cleaning-matters.com/enquiry T e l : 0 8 7 0 6 0 0 7 3 2 7 333 or www.cleaning-matters.com/enquiry T e l : 0 15 8 2 6 7 74 0 0 Customers won’t stomach dirty restaurants Results from a MORI study show UK consumers are more concerned about restaurant hygiene levels than many of their European counterparts.

Commissioned by Kimberly-Clark, MORI surveyed 5664 people across Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland. The findings showed over eight in ten UK respondents are concerned about restaurants’hygiene Cleaning Show 2005 Innovation Award Winner, Dimplex Cleaning Systems sees steam as an important part of the overall cleaning process in food storage and preparation areas. With new hygiene legislation coming into force next January, new methods of assuring food hygiene and safety, will be considered by industry members. Steam ensures that surfaces are left both clean and sanitised allowing these standards to be maintained at the highest level.

Independent laboratory testing has proven that steam at a pressure of 8-bar removes 99.98 - 100% of food spoilage bacteria, including Salmonella and Listeria. This range of dry steam cleaning machines was developed for use in food storage, preparation, processing and packaging areas. Steam is perfect for cleaning tiles and grouting, floors and walls, fridges and freezers, stainless steel surfaces and cooking appliances. Dimplex Cleaning Systems also offers colour coded accessories for the prevention of cross contamination.

The range begins at the SV4000 model which produces steam at a temperature of up to 150°C which is suitable for cleaning commercial kitchens and so on, and graduates up to the SV15000 model which operates at up to 180°C. This 3- Phase machine is designed to meet the heavy duty cleaning demands of industrial environments like food and milk processing plants and is perfect for compliance with HACCP standards.

Three wipers designed for cleaning food preparation surfaces are available from SCA Tissue Europe.

Non-woven Tork Premium Multipurpose 530 Blue is both strong and absorbent and is suitable for use with water and detergents. It is tough enough to be used as a dishcloth, but more hygienic since it is thrown away after use. The bulky feel of Tork Premium Multipurpose 530 Blue also means that one cloth is sufficient for most wiping applications.

For high capacity kitchens are two-ply Tork Advanced Wiper 420 starting work before handling ready-to-eat food after touching raw food, especially raw meat or poultry after going to the toilet after a break.’ (‘Guide to Food Hygiene’ The Food Standards Agency UK) Hands should be washed using warm water and a liquid soap.

Typically, washing hands with water and soap will leave around 13% of bacteria behind. However, combining water and soap washing with use of a paper towel can reduce bacterial hand contamination by 98%.

If hands are left moist after the washing process, the skin becomes easily irritated and inflamed further increasing the risk that they will carry harmful bacteria into the food preparation area. Moist hands carry up to 50% more bacteria than carefully dried ones. Therefore, there is more to hand hygiene than merely washing, with proper hand drying crucial to removing contamination.

Research suggests that 85% of microbes can be transmitted by moist hands, compared with as little as 0.06% for dry hands.

High quality paper towels also offer advantages compared with common alternatives in the hand drying process. Hand drying with paper towels is quicker and more thorough than using a hot air dryer: typically taking seven to nine seconds compared with 25 seconds with a hot air drier. Importantly, fabric towels can also potentially spread harmful bacteria in food preparation areas through cross-contamination as the same part of the towel can be touched by more than one user.

A quality paper towel like the Katrin One Stop hand towel from Metsä Tissue dries hands by absorbing the moisture and physically removing bacteria that can lead to food contamination.

The Katrin One Stop hand towel is also gentle to the hands; particularly important where it is often necessary to wash hands many times in a single shift.

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