We have all heard of the importance of washing one’s hands, unfortunately many fail to do so after using the bathroom, blowing their nose, changing baby diapers, and cleaning the litter box. Because the importance of washing one’s hands is vital in serving food free from bacteria and viruses, many have opted to use hand sanitizers for cleaning the hands. So are hand sanitizers effective?

If you have ever gone to the hospital or to your primary care physician, you will notice many times the nurse or doctor will use a hand sanitizer on their hands before they begin to examine you. Using hand sanitizers in the medical setting is often used and an accepted practice. So why do restaurant managers and health inspectors require that food service workers wash their hands and not use hand sanitizers alone? There is a term call ‘bacteriological load’ and it refers to the amount of bacteria that is present in this case we are looking at the hands. Food service workers that prepare food often come in contact with many food items (raw chicken, raw beef, raw pork, seafood, salads, etc.) which lend the hands to have different types of bacteria on them. The reason that food service workers cannot use hand sanitizer alone is because the bacteriological load on the hands is high and sanitizers are not effective enough to kill the potentially deadly bacteria.

I want to take this opportunity to say that hand sanitizer used alone should not take the place of adequate and proper handwashing. Even though many of our favorite hand sanitizers talk about killing 99.9% of bacteria, what the average user fails to realize is for the sanitizer to be effective as advertised the sanitizer must be on the hands for a certain period of time (contact time). It is just like if you were going to sanitize your dishes or a counter with bleach it is virtually ineffective if the bleach does not stay in contact with the surface from 30 to 90 seconds depending on the strength. Next time you use a hand sanitizer or sanitizer for your dishes or counters read the label and see what the contact time is in order to be effective.

Even though people talk about hand sanitizers to kill germs, bacteria, and the newly emerging swine flu, nothing beats good old fashion handwashing. The proper way to wash your hands:

• · Have a paper towel or hand drying device ready;
• · Turn on the hot/warm water;
• · Vigorously rub the hands, arms, between fingers, and finger tips for 20 seconds;
• · Thoroughly rinse hands and arms with clean, running hot/warm water;
• · Dry hands with drying device or paper towel;
• · Use paper towel to turn off water (prevents hands from getting dirty again); and
• · Use the same paper towel to open the door (push or turn door knob to exit the bathroom) to prevent hands from becoming dirty again.

Remember that you can join me August 28-29 at the AmtrakCommunity Center for a food safety seminar that is open to the public. As usual feel free to ask me any food safety questions and I will be happy to give you an answer. Happy eating!!!