"Hand"ling Sanitation

With hand sanitizers popping up on walls across the U.S.—from health clinics to grocery stores to museums; hand sanitizing gels available in fragrances from "leather" to "lace"; and touch-free faucets, soaps, and dryers finding their way into more and more restrooms, hands have taken the public spotlight in contamination reduction.

Although it is a basic standard of any food safety program and one that employees should seemingly know and follow without direction, handwashing is a practice on which employees should be continually educated and monitored to reduce risk.

The Chef's Garden implements "training, training, and more training!" said Production Manager Bob Jones Jr. "We have found over the years that successful training is obtained when we discuss the importance of why we need to wash our hands as opposed to setting a policy and then relying on our ability to police that policy."

Specific training for proper hand washing includes utilizing "glow in the dark germs" and black lights, Jones said, explaining, "We can include informative information on the proper technique and have a little fun as well."
 

Hands and Gloves. Handwashing is a critical aspect of food safety because, said Meritech Vice President of Sales and Marketing Michele Colbert, "Employees can bring in transient pathogens on their hands. If this is not addressed right away, the contaminants can be brought into the food area."

At California Natural Products (CNP), employees are to wash their hands every time they enter the processing area, whether that be at the start of a shift, returning from lunch or break, having used the restroom, etc., said CNP Director of Quality Bruce Ferree.

In addition, Ferree said, "In our operation, any direct product handling requires gloves, and we have hand sanitizer available at strategic locations to foster even better hand care in critical needs areas."

Where gloves are required, CNP uses those made from the organic compound nitrile, because of its durability and chemical resistance. Nitrile gloves are also a better option for employees who have allergic reactions to latex.

Handwashing is also an important part of McCain Foods' food safety program, said Group Food Safety Manager Francis Massey. "We are a low-risk product but still ensure that all employees wash their hands before entering the production facility, after eating or drinking, and after visiting the toilet."

Good handwashing is important to the health and welfare of the employees themselves, as it also helps prevent employee sickness, Massey added. Depending on the food being processed at individual McCain plants, gloves may be used. When required, he said, "They must be clean and in good repair."

Each plant has its own internal operating procedures relative to the need for gloves, Colbert said. But even when gloves are worn, hands should always be washed first. "If you don't wash your hands before putting on gloves, the gloves will be contaminated immediately. So there's really no point in wearing gloves if you're not going to wash your hands first."

In fact, Colbert said, gloves can provide a false sense of security. A worker wearing gloves may think nothing of picking up a dropped item from the floor, scratching his head, or touching his face. In actuality any of these things can contaminate the glove. "Having a false sense of security when you're gloved can do more harm than good."

However, she added, there are two primary reasons to wear gloves:

1. for employee protection – for example, potatoes or jalapenos can be corrosive to the skin. Thus, gloves can protect the worker's hands.
    
2. as an added barrier of protection.

Industry Standards. With the continuing growth of retailer requirements that suppliers be GFSI certified, plants are sometimes being held to stricter standards than they may have previously implemented.

For example, Colbert said, SQF and BRC standards, accepted by GFSI, require that every entryway have handwashing facilities. And, she added, use of a gel sanitizer is no longer considered to be an adequate handwashing method in and of itself. Instead, handwashing is defined by federal agencies as the manual use of soap and water, which includes pre-rinsing, lathering for at least 20 seconds, and post-rinsing. "It's a good 30-second procedure," she said.

There are some automated technologies that also fit into these definitions and reduce the time needed for a complete clean. Though saving only seconds, when multiplied by the number of employees and times of needed handwashing, such technologies can increase employee productivity. Plants often try to put these technologies in areas where visitors come through.

Communication. "New employees get a two-day indoctrination into GMPs, safety, and other plant topics, and reminders are stated verbally in the shift meetings by supervisors at least weekly," Ferree said. CNP employees also participate in refresher training in GMPs, including handwashing, at least once a year, and handwashing is covered under other training topics, such as staying healthy, not transferring the flu/colds, and chemical safety, he said.

The most important aspect of communication to encourage employee hand and foot sanitation is "repetitive messaging so that they find the value of this in more than one way," Ferree said. The messaging can be effectively conveyed through verbal communication, prominently placed wall posters, regular training sessions, and other methods.

To communicate the importance of handwashing, McCain trains on the topic as part of its induction process; signs are posted throughout the facilities promoting handwashing; and handwashing is covered in the employee terms and conditions.

To promote food safety through employee following of handwashing standards, "random hand swabs are taken at minimum four times a year," Massey said.

While training and testing are important to employee practices, "the most important tool for communicating best practice handwashing is the senior management team," he said. "Signage is great, but it is the re-enforcement that has to be performed."

Colbert agreed. "I've been doing this for 19 years; one thing that has really started to come into play is training," she said. But with that is the need for the training to be ongoing and management to be involved. "You have to have a manager who cares and is held accountable, and employees need to understand why it is important, the science behind it, and what one wrong move can do to the whole brand," she said. "People want to do the right thing, but they want to understand why."

"The single most important form of communication that we have discovered," Jones said, "is for the team to 'catch' management practicing the same food safety procedures that are required of everyone. If it is important enough for ownership to do this, then we should too."

The author is Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at llupo@gie.net.