Proper Hand Washing – What You Need To Know

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When I am teaching a food safety manager certification class and bring up the topic of handwashing and personal hygiene for food handlers, far too often do I find out that the food managers have been incorrectly taught how to properly wash their hands, either by their supervisors, or unfortunately by other food safety instructors.

Unfortunately even many of the food safety training books used by food safety instructors today teach the same thing;

• Wet your hands with clean running water (110°F or above) and apply soap.
• Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well; be sure to scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
• Continue rubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
• Rinse your hands well under running water.
• Dry your hands using a clean disposable paper towel.

This is only partially correct. Depending on when you are washing your hands determines how you should wash them.

The above method is called a “Single-Wash” method and is to be used during your shift when you need to change jobs that you are performing, after handling raw meats, changing single0use gloves, etc.

There is also what is called a “Double-Wash” method that is recommended to be used at the start of your shift, and most importantly after using the restroom.

With the double wash method you would follow the following steps:

1. Start by wetting both your hands and a nail brush with clean, warm (110°F or higher) running potable water.
2. You will then apply liquid soap to the bristles of the brush, not your hands.
3. Keep the nail brush inside the sink under the rim to avoid splashing with the bristles facing upwards.
4. Move your fingertips back and forth along the bristles of the brush to thoroughly clean your finger tips, and especially along the sides of and under your finger nails.
5. Rinse the nailbrush and set it down bristles pointing upwards so that it can dry.
6. Apply more liquid soap to your hands.
7. Lather the soap on your hands paying special attention to the creases in your wrist, palms of the hand and fingers, and in-between the fingers.
8. Continue scrubbing your hands for 20 seconds.
9. Rinse the soap from your hands using clean, warm (110°F or higher) running potable water.
10. Dry your hands using wither clean single-use disposable paper towels or an air hand dryer.
11. Use a disposable towel to turn off the water faucet.
12. If handwashing is done in a restroom instead of a food-prep area handwashing station, use a disposable towel to open the restroom door and not your clean hands. Upon returning to the food-prep area, re-wash your hands using the single-wash method.

The reason for a double-wash method is that there is a chance that not all of the bacteria is removed from the hands using the single-wash method. The fingertips and fingernails harbor the highest concentration of bacteria. By utilizing the double-wash method you are further insuring that bacterial levels around your finger tips and fingernails is reduced to a safe levels.

This is especially important after using the restroom since many of the foodborne illness outbreaks are caused by food being contaminated with fecal matter.

When utilizing the double-wash method at the start of your shift you are reducing the bacterial levels on your hands to a safe level to begin with. Bacterial levels on your hands, just as any food-prep surface continues to rise as time progresses. This is the reasoning for re-washing your hands using the single-wash method every four hours and sanitizing the food-prep surfaces every four hours.

By strictly utilizing both the single-wash and double-wash methods of handwashing at the proper intervals you can help prevent a foodborne illness outbreak from occurring in your foodservice operation.