Data plus leadership records sustainable gains in handwashing behaviors. Culture change is often cited as a requirement where hand washing rates need to be doubled to reach a safe level. The Atrio Restaurant in Carmel, Indiana, lead by Chef Peter Fulgenzi, took on that task, challenging his staff to accept their professional role in serving […]
Transforming to a Culture of Caring
How to use handwashing as the trigger Culture change. The food safety culture. The culture of cleanliness. The Renaissance impact. Many books have been written and seminars given. Yes, corporate culture for centuries has guided progress on a path of continuous improvement. Culture change is regularly embraced by food and patient safety leaders as a noble and needed solution […]
High-Touch Surface Cleanliness and Biofilm Penetration
Filtering out the marketing fluff around surface disinfectants New surface cleaners stream in for consideration, attempting to change the market or at least carve out a niche. Many times lab data is provided, always finding a test method to make the new look good. This phenomenon is witnessed most frequently for new disinfectants where kill […]
The Easy-Clean Hand
Why Women Win Competitive Handwashing Events Are women better hand washers? No. Do women have cleaner hands? Yes, provided they lose the hand-bling and the artificial nails. Handwashing For Life has witnessed and judged thousands of handwashes under competitive conditions. The contest is known best as the Handwashing Olympics. GlitterBug UV lotion is applied to […]
Trains, Planes & Cruise Liners
The Case for Obsessive Hand Hygiene Travelers are herded into shared spaces and exposed to each other’s profile of pathogens hour after hour. A quick turn-around of the plane, train or cruiser leaves a residual base of germs to build on and the recharging of these reservoirs starts again. There is one universal precaution that […]
Handwash Monitoring Wins NSF Leadership Award
Chef Peter Fulgenzi awarded for innovative process-control “In presenting these awards, we honor the winners for their contributions to food safety and the protection of public health…” said Kevan P. Lawlor, NSF International President, and Chief Executive Officer. “Peter’s work has proven to be a model, lighting the path for both operators and new technology […]
Handwashing: Why Monitor?
Legal action lerks with every meal prepared or served away from home. If a foodservice company or institution agrees with the CDC that handwashing is the #1 intervention to prevent the spread of outbreak-causing pathogens, they should act now to: determine their current compliance rates, “Relax or resolve.” identify and verbalize the associated risk, “Know […]
Franchisee vs. Headquarters
Who owns the low-handwashing problem in chain restaurants? Handwashing frequency is often less than desirable in most all restaurants with workers seeing little reason to wash more often and claiming to have little time as customer service trumps clean hands. Training helps but improvements don’t endure. Quality Assurance doesn’t have a handwashing system to monitor. […]
The HACCP/HARPC-Hands Scoreboard
The Remedy for Stored-data Concerns The Handwashing For Life HACCP/HARPC-Hands Scoreboard is a component of EHHM, Electronic Hand Hygiene Monitoring. It is the scoreboard screen or marquee positioned in clear view of the kitchen and wait-staff work stations to assure the food handling team of their current handwashing performance that they are on pace to […]
HandsOn™ Moves HACCP to HARPC Handwashing
Risk-based Preventive Control (RPC) Handwashing For Life’s 5-step HandsOn System™ provides a path to implement HARPC Handwashing for those looking to augment their HACCP or AMC, Active Managerial Control, programs. It is a perfect drill-down vehicle to take handwashing from prescriptive advice to tailored Hazard Analysis Risk-based Preventive Control, HARPC. While today HARPC officially applies […]
