Handsinks & Cantaloupes: Bringing The Farm To The Fork

If anyone ever questioned why the Handwashing Only directive is important for specified kitchen handsinks, consider this “poster child” example.

This restaurant is blessed with a handsink perfectly located at the entrance to the prep area. Wait staff pass by it to pick up nearly every order and bussers file by on their trips to the dish machine. But it’s a deep sink, perfect for scrubbing the cantaloupes which are heavily used as garnishes from breakfast through dinner in a neighborhood with a full complement of senior citizens.

Two health department reminder posters are not enough to keep staff from cleaning those cantaloups in a task-perfect sink, blocking the would-be frequent handwashers.

Outbreaks from cantaloupes range from the current listeria driven deaths to salmonella and norovirus incidents. These melons are regularly bringing the farm to the fork with nearly an outbreak per year being recorded for this past decade.http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/listeriosis/outbreak.html

This handsink qualifies as a candidate for Handwashing For Life’s “Handsinks from Hell”designation because of this outbreak-inviting situation along with its perilous faucet taps. ATP values on these fluted handles gave readings over 10,000 RLUs.

This would be an ideal site for a handsink designed strictly for handwashing, equipped with time saving touch-free components.