Symptom vs. Source According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), norovirus continues to be responsible for over 50 percent of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. In recent years, a majority of foodborne norovirus outbreaks occurred in restaurants, often related to an infected employee practicing poor handwashing and subsequently handling food. There is […]
E-Monitoring Handwash History In Foodservice
Limitations from the Past Deter New-tech Trials Net/Tech, UltraClenz and Diversey’s initial entry (VET), are but three of the many failed electronic handwash monitoring systems tested by major US foodservice companies. What did they all have in common? personal ID badges – a distinct handicap in this high staff-turnover environment. The watershed-event of the Jack-In-The-Box […]
Food Code Is Again Challenged By Science
Bureaucracy Buries Additions to Public Health A handwashing-without-water protocol has perplexed the FDA and its Conference for Food Protection (CFP) for 12 years, unable to resolve it at six successive biennial sessions. This recurring issue, Hand Cleanse-Sanitize Protocol Not Requiring Running Water (SaniTwice) was presented one more time at the 2018 CFP in Richmond Virginia, […]
The Mark Twain Solution to Embarrassingly Low Handwashing Rates
Data-driven continuous improvement for restaurants and hospitals Hospitals have a great standard for handwashing as does FSMA. It’s Continuous Improvement. Mark Twain agrees, noting that “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” Healthcare Kitchens & The Joint Commission The Joint Commission, healthcare’s performance auditors, encourages a path of measured progress but results are often discouraging […]
A New Potential Legal Risk For Poor Handwashing
The “Readily Available” Principle Immersion into the topic of hand hygiene to reduce operational risk has surfaced yet another incentive to improve handwashing process control. Operators know their handwashing rates are low and now they may be open to a charge of negligence should an outbreak be identified. In Foodservice, including in the kitchens of […]
Handwashing’s Risk-Based Behavior Change
Facing the Culture Trap Handwashing behaviors are primarily driven by a firm’s assessment of risk. The Operations department starts near the top of this pyramid, looking first to change the behaviors of prep and waitstaff via Quality Assurance and Training. Ownership and their C-Suite representatives are disengaged as there are no handwashing compliance reports to […]
Defeating Norovirus
Conquering this Enemy is Increasingly a Matter of Choice The more we learn about norovirus, the clearer the choices are in changing current behaviors. Foodservice operators know a lot about norovirus, especially in how to cope with an outbreak. What they are ignoring are the impacts of breakthroughs in the science of norovirus, DNA identification […]
SaniTwice® Celebrating 10th Anniversary
The Celebration “Bookend” posters have been created to mark two important milestones. In 2006 a new hand hygiene protocol came onto the USA food safety scene from its original military use in the Middle-East, Jordan to be specific. http://handwashingforlife.com/handsonsystem/sanitwice In 2016, after garnering another research accolade, the innovation team will again look to the CFP […]
SaniTwice® – A Process Registration
Lesson learned from IAFP. Preparation for CFP. The SaniTwice® protocol is back in the news as the results of recent research in produce fields reaches farms, processors and restaurants. All markets are cleared and encouraged to use this process and its name without any royalties, much like the IAFP food safety icons are protected yet […]
Kick the Sanitizer Bucket
Misunderstanding of regulations perpetuates poor cleaning Many operators and even regulators continue to use and recommend cleaning restaurant tables and other high-touch surfaces with a reusable rag stored in a bucket of sanitizing solution. This solution is easily degraded and difficult to maintain. It is also a poor cleaner allowing contamination buildups capable of harboring […]
