Hand Hygiene Tips

Work in a Kitchen? Wash Your Hands

If you work in the service industry as a cook, waiter, or other occupation where you may handle food, making sure you wash your hands is not only important, it is the law in many areas. There are guidelines for every step when you wash your hands. In a restaurant, law can dictate everything from how long you rinse to the temperature of the water you use. Here are some hand hygiene tips to use on the job.

Use an antibacterial soap when you wash your hands in a restaurant. Cross-contamination is the most common form of health issues in restaurant kitchens, and this mostly stems from people not properly washing their hands when they switch from one dish to another. Take the extra minute to properly wash your hands. It is safer, cleaner, and could save your job if you ever got caught not conforming to the required law.

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An Effective Method to Wash Your Hands

Too many people take hand hygiene for granted and are in need of some serious hand hygiene tips. Just rinsing your hands with water after using the restroom is not enough. If you want to be effective in keeping your hands clean, here are a few basics on how to ensure you get a good, sanitary wash.

First, use warm water. Many people scold their hands thinking the water needs to be super hot when you wash your hands. This is not so. Too much heat can actually close up pores and trap dirt and grime in your skin. Warm water is just right so that it opens these pores up.

Also, use a good soap and really scrub. For an effective wash, it is recommended that you use an antibacterial soap and scrub each hand on its own for 10 seconds. Really get into the grooves of the skin by focusing on only one hand at a time.

To finish the job, dry off using a clean towel or air dryer. When you wash your hands, you need to get them good and dry to prevent particles from sticking to your wet skin. Not properly drying can negate all of the cleaning you just did.

Practice effective hand hygiene by using a good method when you wash your hands.

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The Importance of Hand Hygiene

As children, most of us had parents that would make us wash our hands after almost everything we did. As adults, we know that they were not joking around, because hand hygiene is of more importance than any child could know. Without proper hand hygiene, germs and bacteria can stay on your hands and be transferred to the food you eat, the itches you scratch, and almost anything else you touch.

Cleanliness is only one factor in maintaining good hand hygiene. Of course you want clean hands to not get other things dirty. However, beyond the need for clean is the need for sanitary. If you use a public restroom for example, you don't know what the last person who flushed the toilet has for hygiene habits. The only way to protect yourself from other people's bad habits is to stick to your own good ones.

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Defense Against Germs? Keep your Hands Clean

Keeping your hands clean is not just for germaphobes. Basic hand hygiene should be practiced by everyone, regardless of whether you believe in ‘germs' or not. For those that are concerned with contracting illness and are looking for simple steps they can take to protect themselves, keeping your hands clean is a great start.

Our hands come into contact with more surfaces and elements than any part of our body. They also transfer the food we eat into our mouths. With so many opportunities, your hands can be exposed to germs many times in a given day. Now, I am not suggesting that you wash your hands every time you touch something, or carrying wetnaps in your pocket. However, keeping your hands clean as much as is reasonable is one of the best hand hygiene tips available. It can help protect you from all of the elements your hands may encounter.

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When Clean Hands Are Important

It is always important to practice good cleanliness, however, some instance are more important than others. Here are a few situations where you will want to be extra sure you have clean hands:

• An easy number one for this list is when you are handling babies. Babies are more susceptible than adults to contracting disease. As unclean hands can carry with them bacteria and other substances, you will want to be extra sure to have clean hands when being around infants.

• Cooking is a close second. When handling foods, whether for yourself or for others, you need to be sure to avoid “cross-contamination”. Different foods carry different bacteria that when put together can be dangerous to your health and the health of others. Keep clean hands in your kitchen.

• Laundry time. Too many times, people don't clean their hands before doing their laundry. When moving clothes from a washing machine to a dryer, dirty hands can work with the wetness to create smudges on your clothes. As the clothes have already been washed, these smudges will last through the drying cycle and remain when you are done.

• Using Electronics. Many people do not know how much oil our hands create, just from nature. When using electronics, these oils can create many problems. Simple soap and water can keep your hands clean enough to work with these things without worry.

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