by 
Games motivate restaurant handwashing.
Food Safety experts gathered in Chicago at the Food Safety Summit to test their skills at this year’s Handwashing For Life Olympics.
“Athletes” had 20 seconds to cleanse their hands of simulated pathogens. Each day produced a Gold Medal Winner from a wide range of participants. Along with the medal each received a gift card from Clyde’s Restaurant Group.
Clyde’s was honored at the event for their 17 consecutive years of holding their own in-house version of this competition. Each year trials are run at their 14 restaurants in the greater Washington DC area. A team is selected from each location and fitted out with shirts donning their team colors and name. Old Ebbitt Grill, across from the White House, is perhaps their best known restaurant and it is on the location of the oldest saloon in the city.
Claude Andersen, Clyde’s VP of Human Resources, summarized the success of the annual event as “a great morale builder as well as a food safety education tool. Over the years, the prize money has become secondary to the bragging rights of winning the competition.”
Visiting operators were invited to consider bringing gamification into their portfolio of food safety resources: http://handwashingforlife.com/handsonsystem/serveready-hands/trainingMedals were presented by Jim Mann, Executive Director of The Handwashing For Life® Institute.
Day One Winner: Olivia Banks, USDA
Day Two Winner: Barbara Van Renterghem, Food Safety Magazine
Day Three Winner: Nicole Wilson, NSF International
