Why you should wash your hands.

Food Safety is the number one issue facing restaurants and food companies today. According to the Food and Drug Administration [FDA], foodborne illness kills more than 9,000 people each year in the USA. Over 70% of all outbreaks originate in food-service operations and as many as 40% are the result of poor hand-washing and cross contamination. Each year more than 76 million estimated cases of food poisoning occur in the United States alone.

Wash your hands because:

• HACCP compliance save costs
• Protecting your customers protects you
• You take pride in your employee hygiene

Personal Hygiene and Food Poisoning

From a business perspective, Hand-Washing is important because:

• You owe it to your customers
• Improve Health Inspector relations
• Ensure your business is HACCP compliant
• As food handlers, your staff MUST wash their hands
• It’s a simple solution to a major risk threat

Staff must wash their hands:

• At the start of each shift
• After staff use of the bathroom
• After staff handle money
• Each time staff enter the food service area
• At regular intervals (once per hour!)

The human body is a carrier of many food poisoning organisms.

For example:

Staphylococcus aureus
Found in our hands, hair, nose, mouth, ears, throat, in septic cuts, spots and boils.

Clostridium perfringens
Found in our intestines…

These organisms amongst others, can easily be transferred onto the food being prepared or served to customers.

“Hand-washing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection”
U.S. Center for Disease Control”