Just how important is hand washing for food hygiene? Saschsa Rother, of Basan South Africa, gets down and dirty with the subject.
It seems like common sense, but we forget that our understanding of the role of clean hands in the spread of disease is a relatively new discovery. Pioneers like Semmelweis, Lister, Holmer and Louis Pasteur faced stiff resistance and ridicule when they promoted hand washing as a technique to reduce ‘nosocomial’ (in hospital) mortality.
What are the realities?
Today, norms and systems like BRC, HACCP, GMP, ISO etc still have a weak point - the human element. Poor hand cleaning technique is one of the ways an advanced and thoroughly considered hygienic zone will be compromised by well-meaning staff who can’t see the error of their ways.
We wash our hands many times every day, so why do we get it so wrong? Reasons (or excuses) can include time pressure; the inconveniently located wash bays; concerns about the repeated use of soap products and poor technique.
Poor hand cleaning techniques are not easily identifiable. A visual check cannot establish if all harmful substances have been effectively removed. We often get away with not cleaning our hands properly, as in, there are often no immediate ramifications. Consequently, poor hand cleaning techniques are reinforced.
There are complicated methods of assessing hand cleanliness, but these are time consuming, expensive, and potentially embarrassing to the staff being assessed.
Proper training is therefore essential. But this training is often seen as boring and unnecessary. The lag between swabbing hands and then developing cultures from those swabs creates a separation between cause and effect, diluting the learning process. Consequently, basic cleaning techniques remain poorly understood and applied.
Overcoming the problem is not difficult, but needs the organizations commitment to addressing the problem. Only when the employer takes the issue seriously, will staff do likewise. It should not be left up to staff to manage the issue themselves.
The following are some of the steps which should be taken to ensure proper hand hygiene is applied:
ADDAS begins with awareness, and training is the essential first step. For training to be effective it must be interactive and spontaneous. Glo Germ is a cream or powder that is invisible until revealed by UV (Ultra Violet) light. Apply the product to the hands and the wash in the normal way. Hands look clean until illuminated under the UV light, where ‘contamination’ is revealed. Glo Germ is also an effective surface cleaning tool – where once again, ‘contaminated residue’, invisible to the naked eye, is revealed by a UV Light.
If the ADDAS approach is followed, hand hygiene will be improved. This will not only increase the cleanliness level of your hygiene zone, but will improve the health of the organization. Intra-office transfer of germs will be limited, reducing both product failure and absenteeism, improving productivity in your manufacturing, as well as your administrative areas.
Simple, effective steps to lowering costs – and increasing profits. That, we believe, makes effective hand washing a big deal.
