Video observation of hand-hygiene compliance in a manufacturer of ready-to-eat pie and pastry products

ABSTRACT

Food-handler hand-hygiene can be a contributory factor for food-borne illness. Cognitive data (knowledge/attitudes/self-reported practices), while informative, are not indicative of behaviour, and are subject to biases. Consequently, observation of behaviour is superior to survey data. However, researcher presence in direct observation increases reactivity, whereas video observation gives comprehensive analysis over a longer period, furthermore, familiarity reduces reactivity. Although video observation has been used to assess food safety at retail/foodservice, this valuable method is under-utilized in food-manufacturing environments. For the study, footage (24 h) was reviewed to assess compliance in a food-manufacturing site with company protocol. Video observation of food-handlers entering production (n = 674) was assessed; upon 70 occasions no attempt to implement hand-hygiene was observed. Of attempted hand-hygiene practices (n = 604), only 2% implemented compliant practices. Although 78% of attempts utilized soap, only 42% included sanitizer. Duration ranged from 1 to 69 s (Median 17 s). The study provides hand-hygiene data in an area that observational data is seldom captured.

KEYWORDS:

• Observation
• behaviour
• food-handler
• food industry
• ready-to-eat
• hand-hygiene

Acknowledgments

The author acknowledge the support of ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre colleagues to enable completion of the project and to the manufacturer for allowing access to the factory CCTV footage to conduct the observation study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by an ‘Accelerator Fund’ grant from the Research & Enterprise Services at Cardiff Metropolitan University.