Break the Chain of Outbreaks

Building an enduring system starts with oper ations, quality assurance, and risk management convening to put the known risks of poor hand hygiene into the context of a particular business: its menu, its facility, its customers, its purchasing policies, and its managers’ effectiveness in motivating and controlling the staff. The operation’s tolerance for risk should be included in this baseline discussion.

This temporary team starts converting the staff’s food handling practices into a safe level of hand washing: the number of hand washes per shift that will likely keep us out of the courtroom. This standard can be monitored simply by placing a digital counter in the soap dispenser. Local managers can now add this line to their quality assurance/operational reporting, highlighting dangerous deviations.

Good hand hygiene behaviors are best achieved using equipment and products that make it easier for the staff to do the right thing consistently. A convenient, touch-free hand hygiene unit is a good example. Added to the hygienic factor are time and water savings, which normally cover this investment in the first year.

Quick access to fused-bristle nailbrushes and well-fitted National Sanitation Foundation-approved gloves will improve compliance. Ergonomic considerations help define better equipment and supplies. Quality builds reliability, worker confidence, and compliance.

Staff training is an important factor now that standards are in place. The effectiveness and sustainability of training will be multiplied by the use of safe level standards in combination with a monitoring system. After all, what gets measured gets done!

The Front Door Virus

While keeping the ill employee off the food service premises continues to be difficult, keeping ill customers at bay is impossible. Just ask the cruise industry and their health inspectors, the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program. It is passengers and their microbes that are turning ships back to port for costly decontaminations.

Customers are increasingly protected by operator leaders who are placing hand sanitizers at business entrances, in play areas, and at the heads of serving lines. Recent research indicates increased norovirus and hepatitis A effectiveness for “synergized” alcohol hand sanitizers, opening up opportunities to further reduce operator risk.

The Xchange Area Virus

Restrooms are critical harbors for viruses that arrive through both the front and rear doors. Almost all viral outbreaks start in a restroom, whether it is in a home or away from home, with—of course—a fecal-hand-oral pathway. Customers returning from restrooms to tables can ignite a blaze of contamination as servers and bussers cross-contaminate with innocent touches of service.

Consider these common situations. One: Mom is thrilled because the family is dining out today. Junior is coming down with something, but the symptoms aren’t severe at the moment. Let’s go!

Two: A person driving along endures a sudden and powerful stomach cramp. It could be explosive. Where is the nearest port to weather the oncoming storm? “Here’s a restaurant. Thank heavens! Just in time!” So who makes more visits to and spends the most time in the restroom—the sick or the healthy?

Cleaner Surfaces, Cleaner Hands, Safer Food

Restroom cleanliness is increasingly affecting the consumer’s choice in away-from-home dining. Restrooms must be welcoming and comfortable, as suggested by the label “comfort station.” User comfort is a complex but instant perception formed by visual cues and the fresh air of cleanliness.

Shortcomings in a restroom protection system can best be overcome with more control and monitoring of cleaning methods and their frequency. Proper use of a quality-minded service company is often an important part of the solution. Periodic measurement and reporting of surface cleanliness help to keep the focus on this important environment.

Cleanliness monitoring can range from simple black light methods that expose the areas missed by the cleaning crew to more sophisticated adenosine triphosphate measurement devices designed to indicate the presence of organic contamination. Cleaner surfaces are a meaningful virus intervention and result in cleaner hands and safer food.

Keep Hot Air Dryers Out

Before specifying hot air dryers for restrooms, consider why they are no longer a part of the professional kitchen. They are too slow, too noisy, and do not offer the documented cleaning that results from the friction involved in using a paper towel. This is clearly a place for a touch-free automatic paper towel dispenser.