by Uninvited pathogens contaminate table-side tablet menusMany risks of pathogens penetrating restaurant space can be stopped at the door with a touch-free “handwash” without water – an application of a quality hand sanitizer. The hands of entering diners are converted from fearsome to friendly, TouchReady®.
There are likely many more pathogens arriving to the dining space from the guests than from the food worker or from kitchen-contaminated food. This has been proven by the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation research with cruise liners. Their outbreaks become headlines as the contaminated passengers remain together for an extended period of time, enough to gather samples of fecal matter or vomitus to confirm the outbreak and isolate the sick.
Lucky for restaurant owners, diners are only together for an hour or two, leaving little time for traceability protocols. We believe restaurants are frequent sources of unreported cross-customer contaminations. Our evidence is the implied math from high ATP readings, recording the presence of organic matter. If the original carrier’s surface contamination finds its way into the food flow, larger groups are affected and an official outbreak is declared.
Smaller outbreaks are now discovered by the CDC via WGS, Whole Genome Sequencing. Added to this, new technology-driven risk is the arrival of social media and its crowdsourcing ability to convert diners into quasi health inspectors, reporting their findings on IWasPoisoned.com.
Ironically the legal principle of Strict Liability puts the operator in the court room, not the customer who introduced the bug. Look first to prevention by having touch-free hand sanitizer dispensers to greet the public. The dispensers must be placed in the direct pathway of arriving diners. Messages can be added to engage them in their social accountability to protect the wellness of this temporary circle of community.
