Whether in your home kitchen or working in a commercial restaurant, if hands contact germs from unwashed produce and raw meats, they can transfer disease to you, your family, and your customers.
Doctors and health departments advise that thoroughly washing your hands is the most important health habit to survive the flu and cold seasons.
Remember to Always Wash Your Hands:
- Before starting work in the kitchen.
- Before touching ready-to-eat foods when dining out.
- Before you touch anything used to prepare food.
- After working with raw meat, fish, poultry, and unwashed vegetables and fruits.
- After handling trash, delivery boxes, mop buckets, and other soiled equipment.
- After using the bathroom or changing a diaper.
- After loading soiled dishes and silverware into the dishwasher.
- After using cleaners and chemicals.
- After blowing your nose or touching hair, mouth, sores, etc.
The Best Way to Wash Your Hands Takes About 20 Seconds:
- Wet your hands with warm water.
- Apply soap to wet hands.
- Rub your hands briskly together to loosen any dirt and germs.
- Once the palms and backs of hands are sudsy, scratch each palm with the opposite hand’s nails and knuckles to further clean those crevices where microbes are hiding.
- Rinse your hands under clean, warm water.
- Dry your hands on a paper towel or with an air dryer; not on a common cloth or an apron, which will re-contaminate your cleaned hands.
