IMPROVING HAND HYGIENE COMPLIANCE IN RESTAURANTS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: EXTENDED
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0209031
• Grant No.: 2006-51110-03735
• Project No.: CALW-2007-01002
• Proposal No.: 2007-01002
• Program Code: 111
• Project Start Date: Sep 15, 2006
• Project End Date: Sep 14, 2010
• Grant Year: 2007

Project Director
Henroid, D. H.

Recipient Organization
UNIV OF CALIFORNIA
(N/A)
SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94143

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
Inadequate hand hyiene practices are some of the most significant contributing factors to foodborne illnesses in retail food establishments including restaurants. The goal of this project is to determine the effectiveness of a hand hygiene education program to increase the amount of adequate hand hygiene practices in restaurants. The goal of this project is to develop a practical handwashing compliance system for retail and foodservice establishments to reduce the risk of cross contamination to food served to customers from poor hand hygiene.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

15%

Applied

60%

Developmental

25%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
504	5010	3020	40%
712	5010	3020	60%

Knowledge Area
504 - Home and Commercial Food Service; 712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

food safety, hand hygiene, handwashing, risk assessment, restaurants,

retail food establishments

Goals / Objectives
1. Assess the food safety systems and back-of-the-house restaurant employee handwashing prevalence. 2. Implement this site-specific management system to measure the ability of the Person-In-Charge (PIC) to raise handwashing frequency and establish a base for continuous improvement. 3. Evaluate the efficacy of handwashing practices before and after an educational intervention. 4. Determine employee handwashing intentions compared to practice using the theory of planned behavior.

Project Methods
This project will use quantitative and qualitative methods with microbiological analyses to evaluate hand hygiene practices in quick service and casual dining restaurants. A pre-test/post-test research design will be used the effectiveness of a hand hygiene education program in 40 quick service and family style restaurants. A customized hand hygiene compliance system will be developed for retail food operators based on an initial assessment of food handling practices, surveys of employee knowledge about handwashing and intentions to wash hands, hand hygiene, and microbiological analyses of food contact surfaces and employee hands. Employees' intentions to wash their hands will be compared to observational data assessing the efficacy of handwashing based of standards in the FDA Model Food Code using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Handwashing educational sessions will be conducted in all establishments based on assessment data and the TPB. After these sessions, follow-up assessments of handwashing behavior based on observations and handwashing surveys will be done. Results will be compared to before and after the intervention. The long term impact of the educational intervention also will be evaluated. Overall results of the project will be used to refine the handwashing compliance system to improve the safety of food served to restaurant customers.

Progress 09/15/06 to 09/14/07

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Due to changes in the principal investigator's institution, a new subcontract needed to be established which took some time. The initial focus of the project has been on establishing best practices for assessing handwashing behavior and systems. An expert advisory committee was assembled at the International Association for Food Protection meeting in 2007. The overall approach, methodologies, and tools were presented to the committee for their review. Based on their feedback, the project tools have been revised. The project team has been recruited to perform the work and become familiar with the overall project. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
Restaurant and other foodservice operators that adopt the proposed hand hygiene compliance system will be able to more efficiently manage the handwashing and hand hygiene compliance of their employees compared to systems currently available. Improved handwashing and hand hygiene compliance should help reduce the risk of foodborne illness in establishments where these employees work.

Publications

• No publications reported this period