Mann: promote hand washing with the right equipment

Nation's Restaurant News,  Feb 19, 2007  by James Scarpa

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"Good hand washing starts with good design," says Jim Mann, founder and executive director of the Handwashing for Life Institute. Mann notes that equipment plays an important role in the industry's best practices to promote proper hand washing.

Mann's Libertyville, Ill.-based organization offers an integrated-solutions approach to hand hygiene for the foodservice industry. The institute provides hand-hygiene training seminars, videos, worksheets, posters and reference articles. The www.handwashingfor life.com site offers information and links to vendor sites.

Mann, who said he started thinking about hand-hygiene improvement during his 20-year career as a development chemist, received the NSF Lifetime Achievement Award in Food Safety Leadership in 2005.

How can tracking the number of times employees wash their hands make a difference?

It's much easier to act when you're looking at confirming numbers. When an operator says, "I'm concerned that my hand-washing rates could be better," and we show that the actual rate is less than one-half of a hand wash per employee per hour, it's a shock. That's when equipment can come into play big time.

What components should you look for in a hand-washing station?

If we were designing it, we would have it hardwired, because electronic faucets need electricity. Battery-powered ones are good, but that's one more battery for the operator to change.

People look at the price of an electronic faucet and are scared off. But there are hidden savings, such as lower water and sewer rates. If you're washing your hands as the Food Code suggests, you've got the water running 20 to 30 seconds. But an automatic faucet shuts off while you're scrubbing. That's a huge savings. The hand sink should be seamless in its construction, so it cleans easily. It should have a deep-draw bowl that drains and dries quickly, limiting bacterial growth, plus a splash guard to stop cross-contamination. Also consider an anti-microbial surface. A touch-free soap dispenser and paper-towel dispenser are two fewer things to touch. Incidentally, when we do [bacterial] plate tests on the handles of towel dispensers, they're loaded. Actually, toilet seats are cleaner--they're cleaned every day.

Are kitchen designers getting the message that design and equipment can make hand washing easier and more habitual?

I think they are. Still, there's a battle. The reality is, they design in so many hand-washing stations, but due to the cost of kitchen space, there's a big temptation to scrap something that's not production-oriented.

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