Assessment of the bacterial contamination on hands of hospital food handlers

This study was performed in order to determine the level of bacterial contamination on the hands of food handlers ( n=30) who work in the kitchen of a military training hospital. A total of 180 samples were collected from bare and gloved hands before and during food preparation. A total of 16 differ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food control 2004-06, Vol.15 (4), p.253-259
Main Authors: Ayçiçek, Hasan, Aydoğan, Hakan, Küçükkaraaslan, Ayten, Baysallar, Mehmet, Başustaoğlu, Ahmet Celal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacterial contamination
Food handler
Hand hygiene
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Summary:This study was performed in order to determine the level of bacterial contamination on the hands of food handlers ( n=30) who work in the kitchen of a military training hospital. A total of 180 samples were collected from bare and gloved hands before and during food preparation. A total of 16 different bacteria were isolated, of which the most common was Staphylococcus aureus (126/180; 70%), followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci (102/180; 56.7%), diphtheroid bacilli (39/180; 21.7%), Bacillus spp. (19/180; 10.5%), and Escherichia coli (14/180; 7.8%). Fifty-one of 60 (85%) gloved hand samples were collected during work, 57 (95%) of the bare hand samples were collected before work all of the bare hand samples collected during work were positive. Poor hand hygiene was indicated by high levels of S. aureus and E. coli on samples taken from bare and gloved hands. Although bacterial loads on gloved hand samples were found to be significantly lower ( p
ISSN:0956-7135
1873-7129
DOI:10.1016/S0956-7135(03)00064-1