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Current: North America Regional Websites: South Africa United Kingdom
A new strain of Swine Flu is moving quickly around the world with Mexico being identified as its source. Clean hands are once again the primary defense.
Breakthrough Norovirus-effective Formulation Now Commercially Available
The use of Food Code compliant alcohol hand sanitizers in Foodservice has been suppressed for years by relatively low effectiveness on their number one cause of foodborne outbreaks, norovirus. Formulations deploying new synergists potentiate the alcohol base and more than triple its predesessor products' effectiveness. It is more than 10 times more effective than the thin liquid versions. The foodservice market now has a very effective and convenient option which is also skin friendly. read more »
Actually it can be thanks to the diligence of operators, regulators and food service workers. Unfortunately, even with the best intentions not all food service is safe. The Five Faces of Foodborne Illness is based on USA statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) who also advise us that Handwashing is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection. read more »
The SaniTwice® poster has been selected for presentation at this years IAFP meeting to be held in Grapevine, Texas. This hand cleansing protocol, originally developed for the US military, delivers ServeReady Hands® without water.
When clean to sight and touch is not enough.Every surface touch in a professional kitchen, restroom and service area is different and carries an unknown risk factor for contaminating the hands, bare or gloved. These hands in turn can contaminate the food or another person directly. Grouping these touches, with the HACCP principle in mind, is a good first step - prioritizing those touches that must trigger a handwash and a specific hand hygiene regimen. read more »
ServeReady™ Hands is the outcome of this system as well as its name. It starts with a risk assessment of current practices and sets a course to reach and sustain safe level standards. The Level One Implementation Manual can be utilized by smaller operations to get started and often is all that is needed. For more complex organizations it is used to gather multi-department support, set up a trial and tailor the program to the individual operational culture.
read more »
Las Vegas, the world capital of risk & reward, served as a metaphor for last week's Norovirus Summit II where food safety executives and researchers shared the news on norovirus and the risks of poor hand hygiene. The event was created by Handwashing For Life as a combined technical conference and implementation workshop. It followed in the spirit of the original Norovirus Summit held in 2004, following major norovirus outbreaks in cruise ships and hotel casinos.
Over one hundred professionals gathered last week at the Venetian Palazzo Congress Center to listen, contribute and get started applying the hand hygiene learning to raise standards and further reduce their risk of outbreaks. Attendees represented more than 25 casinos, 12 major restaurants, a cruise line, the Clark County School District and a group of health inspectors from Las Vegas and the State of Nevada. read more »
Foodservice Equipment & Supply has coverage of NAFEM with focus on handwashing:
“Attendees passing by the Handwashing For Life exhibit were advised to not touch an object affectionately named “Sally Salmonella.” Naturally, Handwashing For Life’s Jim Mann made Sally irresistible to mere mortals. So once an attendee interacted with Sally, Jim used that opportunity to teach them about leading-edge handwashing and sanitation techniques using a number of different pieces of equipment and supply items from a collection of participating manufacturers.”
Research from the University of Westminster in London England gives yet another reason to stay away from air dryers in kitchens and restrooms. They are well known for being slow and even the new air blade technology does not offer the friction factor needed in this final cleansing step. Users strongly prefer paper towels and the mere presence of air dryers may discourage handwashing all together.
Now comes this news showing pathogen breeding and having bacteria blown around the room, deposited on surfaces up to 6 feet away. This is especially troubling as we learn more about the lengthy survival times of the highly infectous norovirus on restroom surfaces, documented in Emory University research here or below. read more »
Norovirus continues to dominate the list of pathogens facing foodservice operators and poor hand hydiene is the most frequently cited factor in outbreak reports. read more »
Caution! Ill advised savings can be a short cut to outbreaks.
One of the risks of economic downturns is outbreak upturns. Restaurants cut the immeasurable first. Handwashing may well be as the CDC indicates "the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection" but it is easily compromised because so few operators have compliance standards.
First, “let's switch to air dryers and save paper costs.” Heads nod yes. Cha-ching! Savings are duly noted and rewarded. That purchasing person doesn't likely understand that the friction of a single-use paper towel is first part of the cleaning process, commonly doubling the cleaning of the soap alone. In effect, by using air dryers, hot air or air blade technology, you are getting a 1/2 wash. How much is risk increased if you cut handwashing in half? read more »
Announced by the Clean Hands Coalition, the week of September 20th-26th is this year's official International Clean Hands Week.
Handwashing remains the most important intervention in saving lives around the world. This fact makes that week one of Handwashing For Life's most important dates on the annual calendar. It is a time to bring the world together, to raise the awareness of the importance of handwashing and to get started in changing hand hygiene behaviors. read more »
Jim Mann, Executive Director of the Handwashing For Life Institute, will be joined by William Eaton, Principal of Cini-Little International, in a presentation on the escalating war between foodservice operators and the invading army of norovirus. read more »
A killer that's kind. This summarizes two pieces of important news where a single alcohol hand sanitizer formulation kills norovirus quicker and is milder than baby oil. read more »
Cini•Little
GlaxoSmithKline
Hill & Knowlton
NSF International
T&S Brass
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