Food Safety and washing your hands

Hello all,

Hand washing is a pet peeve of mine.  In Culinary school the very first thing I was taught is how to properly wash my hands.  What? You may be saying to yourself.  I know how to wash my hands properly, been doing so all my life.  Well while that is definitely true you've been washing your hands your whole life, you'd be surprised (or not) to find out how many people have forsworn soap and water in favor of hand sanitizers. 

In that very first Culinary class - Food Safety and Sanitation we did an experiment using hand sanitizer and a black light.  Some folks washed their hands first then used the hand sanitizer.  Their hands were then placed under a black light and guess what, there were still some germs there.  Another group used only hand sanitizer, and what we saw under the black light was not pretty!

Unfortunately because our society is in such a rush these days, people have substituted the soap and warm to hot water that has been killing most germs for centuries for the quick and seeming convenience of hand sanitizers.

This is in my opinion, not a good thing.  People who work in the food service industry and the health care professions know (or should know) the importance of stopping germs so that food and patients are not contaminated unnecessarily.  Rubber gloves are not impermeable, so you really need to wash your hands with soap and water first, before you make my sandwich or whatever.  If a doctor did not scrub his forearms and hands and then use a sanitizer such as betadine, prior to performing surgery could you imagine the germs he'd be passing onto his patients?

So, all this to say wash your hands with soap and water, forgo the hand sanitizer unless there is no soap and water available and stop spreading those germs that are making people sick.  Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds which is just about how long it takes to sing "happy birthday" at least once.

Okay?  Okay!

Ciao for now,

J