A case study of food handler hand hygiene compliance in high-care and high-risk food manufacturing environments using covert-observation

ABSTRACT

Observation of behaviour is superior to cognitive data, which does not equate to behaviour. Covert-observation is seldom used in food manufacturing to assess behaviour. In this case study, closed-circuit-television footage (15 h) in a business were reviewed to assess hand hygiene compliance using an electronic-checklist. Hand hygiene attempts were observed prior to entering high-risk (cake/pie)(n= 47) and high-care (sandwich/salad)(n= 153) production areas. Business hand hygiene protocol required handwashing durations ≥ 20 s. Observed durations ranged 1–71 s, <96% of attempts were <20 s. Significantly longer durations were observed when food handlers were in the presence of others (12 s) than when alone (9 s). Although <99% utilised soap, only 56–69% wetted hands first. Failure to rub all parts of hands was commonplace (<87%) and 24–35% failed to apply sanitiser after drying. Consequently, >98% of observed attempts before entering production areas did not comply with the protocol. Observed non-compliant practices may have implications for food safety in manufacturing.

KEYWORDS:

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

Acknowledgments

The authors 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. The authors acknowledge the ‘Accelerator Fund’ grant from the Research & Enterprise Services at Cardiff Metropolitan University that allowed for the research to be conducted. The authors acknowledge Catherin Bunston (MSc student) that facilitated all data entry and Lauren Wallis (BSc student) that identified previous research to enable comparison of data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research & Enterprise Services at Cardiff Metropolitan University [Accelerator Fund].