Are you washing your hands correctly?

winterybella

winterybella

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Your hands- I was reading the thread about washing or not washing the chicken and someone spoke to washing your hands properly. I honestly don't wear gloves and find myself washing my hands quite a bit when I am in the kitchen. I want to think I am doing the right thing and washing them properly getting under my nails etc. Once I read the post, I got to questioning if I might be doing all I should ( reading causes you to doubt sometimes). Here is an article I found that that spoke to hand washing. With all the talk about contamination, do you pay more than the usual attention to the way you wash your hand? I want to think I do.

http://startcooking.com/how-to-wash-your-hands
 
I always wash my hands thoroughly and often. I have very long nails and hate having anything down them so I pay particular attention to them. I also don't use kitchen cloths as they can harbour a lot of germs. I tend to use kitchen towel a lot, as well as an anti bacterial spray in all my kitchem surfaces.
 
welsh dragon said:
I always wash my hands thoroughly and often. I have very long nails and hate having anything down them so I pay particular attention to them. I also don't use kitchen cloths as they can harbour a lot of germs. I tend to use kitchen towel a lot, as well as an anti bacterial spray in all my kitchem surfaces.
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The one thing I don't do is always wash my hands with warm water although warm water sometimes comes from the tap when it's thought to be cold. It's during those terribly hot days. I have long nails myself so I am always mindful of that.
 
That first picture is interesting because my thumbs and between my fingers are the areas I feel like I cover almost compulsively when I wash my hands. I always make sure to wash them any time they get messy or I touch raw meat, but I definitely don't do it for fifteen seconds.
Slightly related: some of the schools I work at have little signs above the sinks in the bathrooms for the kids teaching them how to wash their hands, often in the form of songs. Now I want to know if singing the song takes the 15-20 seconds they suggest (or if it takes that long for the kids to read the signs :laugh:)
 
A colleague of mine is ex environmental health officer and is now freelance and has a contract with a few nhs trusts training the staff in washing hands and hand hygiene ,the finger webs are very often missed ,it ways amazes me the people turn taps on with contaminated hands and then wash their hands and turn the taps off again re contaminating their hands again ,same in public toilets or communal wash rooms,I always use disposable paper to turn off taps and open doors other people's germs re theirs I don't need to share them,
 
welsh dragon said:
I always wash my hands thoroughly and often. I have very long nails and hate having anything down them so I pay particular attention to them. I also don't use kitchen cloths as they can harbour a lot of germs. I tend to use kitchen towel a lot, as well as an anti bacterial spray in all my kitchem surfaces.
Click to expand...
Always remember kitchen sanitizer sprays do need contact time to be effective ,so you often spray the surface and just leave it to achieve its full benefit
 
I would say I'm pretty vigilant with most things, but like you I don't always use warm water. I figured if I was using an anti-bacterial soap then the temperature of the water wouldn't be that much of a concern but it turns out that's not quite the case!
 
I do wash my hands often, but I do not know if I am doing it correctly. As I do not have long nails, that is not a problem with me. I do wash my hands before every meal as well as before preparing dinner, and while I am in the process of preparing dinner. As mentioned here in a previous post, I prefer to dry my hands with paper towel than to use a kitchen towel. If a kitchen towel is used regularly for wiping hands, it may not be as clean as we think. I would use a clean kitchen towel for about 3 days, after which I would switch to using hand towels. A hand towel is one of those items that get used up very quickly in my home, but they always come in very handy. I use room temperature water for washing my hands, not warm water. Warm water would be very effective in helping to cut grease though.
 
cupcakechef said:
I would say I'm pretty vigilant with most things, but like you I don't always use warm water. I figured if I was using an anti-bacterial soap then the temperature of the water wouldn't be that much of a concern but it turns out that's not quite the case!
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The down side of bacterial soap,and I've never suffered is that if used all the time it strips your hands and they can dry out and crack,some chefs will wear barrier cream or moisturiser on there hands when they finish work ,to restore some balance
 
Today I was cooking and all the while and I am asking myself if I am washing my hands correctly. It's amazing how things stay with you once you've been exposed to a new bit of information. Before that point was made about people not washing their hands properly I was quite happy that I practiced the best hygiene when preparing food. These days I am wondering if I can and should function with gloves.
 
Soap tends to irritate my hands, dry them out and make them crack and go red. As well as washing my hands, I use hand cream as well to re hydrate and soften them
 
winterybella said:
Today I was cooking and all the while and I am asking myself if I am washing my hands correctly. It's amazing how things stay with you once you've been exposed to a new bit of information. Before that point was made about people not washing their hands properly I was quite happy that I practiced the best hygiene when preparing food. These days I am wondering if I can and should function with gloves.
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Unless you change your gloves constantly there would be no real improvement on eliminating cross contamination
Just considering risks is your biggest guard on preventing cross contamination
 
Berties said:
The down side of bacterial soap,and I've never suffered is that if used all the time it strips your hands and they can dry out and crack,some chefs will wear barrier cream or moisturiser on there hands when they finish work ,to restore some balance
Click to expand...

I use moisturiser a lot too - my hands tend to thankfully stay not too bad. I find the biggest thing that dries my hands out is actually hand sanitizer rather than soap, for some reason!
 
I am not fond of growing my nails long they are always short and well trimmed. It is not easy and comfortable for me working with long nails like when I type on my keyboard and so on. Aside from the techniques already mentioned, when I wash my hands I make sure I also lather up until I reach my elbows. I had read that somewhere and had been doing it now.
My hands are sensitive even to the acid of a citrus fruit so I am very careful with washing too often. What I do is I organize my tasks to minimize having to jump from one to the other to avoid having to wash often.
 
A friend of mine, who was training as a doctor at the time, showed me how to wash my hands properly. He added, rather too cheerfully, I thought, that "they'll be okay until you turn the door handle to leave the toilet, when you'll pick up about 10,000 bacteria."
 
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