How Does Hand Health Affect Overall Food Safety Hygiene?
Clean hands are undoubtedly important for anyone working in the food processing industry , but did you know that healthy hands are equally as important for optimal pathogen removal? How to maintain healthy hands should be a part of any food safety hygiene training program since the way to assure clean hands is by looking out for hand skin health.
Food Safety Hygiene and Hand Health
When an employee at a food processing facility is about to reenter a production area after taking a break, they’ll need to, of course, wash their hands in the hygiene zone at the entrance of the production area. They ideally go through this process multiple times a day and wash their hands more frequently than workers in other industries. This regularity of hand washing can easily dry out the skin on our hands and create an environment that is ideal for harmful pathogens to thrive. Even using hand sanitizers in hygiene zones can have pitfalls since hand sanitizers are alcohol based and can also quickly dry out hands.
Chapped or cracked hands due to excessive dryness do not present a good environment for helpful resident microbiota (bacteria that limits the growth of harmful pathogens). Therefore, an employee that is not moisturizing their hands regularly has a higher risk of attracting harmful bacteria to their hands than an employee that is attentive to their skin needs. This can lead to harmful pathogens entering production zones even if an employee makes sure to properly wash their hands before entering.
Learn more about why hand health is important for food safety
How to Maintain Optimal Hand Health for Food Safety Hygiene
Preserving moisture is the key to having optimal hand health. Using lotions and other treatments are useful for completing this task, but in a fast-paced food processing environment it can be difficult ensure that every employee is taking those extra steps for their hand health. That is why we’ve created UltraPure for our CleanTech® Automated Handwashing Systems. UltraPure is a hand hygiene solution that not only removes 99.9% of harmful pathogens, but also safeguards hand health since it contains added skin softeners and emollients which help to hydrate hands during the 12 second wash cycle.
CleanTech® Automated Handwashing Stations were built to bring hygiene zones to the next level in terms of food safety hygiene. Many food safety leaders have noted increased hygiene compliance as well as better hygiene zone flow for their facilities. Maintaining hand health is now worry-free for hygiene zones across the US that leverage automated hygiene technology!
Learn what CleanTech® has done for our customers