9-5

J. MANN, HEALTHminder, Sloan Valve Company, 10500 Seymour Ave., Franklin Park, IL 60131

Frequent handwashing is a critical component of serving safer food in the retail industry. Getting food prep line workers and servers to wash their hands is simpler than we first thought. When our research showed that restaurant owners, chefs, and even doctors in hospitals were not washing their hands, we were severely discouraged, almost to the point of giving up our handwashing initiative. Our research in the professional kitchen showed that many restaurants had already given up--accepting yelling, aged reminder signage, and plenty of gloves as the substitutes for frequent handwashing. Then, one little nugget of research resuscitated our interest and inspired our development engineers. Our last category of research participants was the food prep worker and server. They trimmed our list of 23 barriers to frequent handwashing down to two: the “no need” group and the “no time” segment. This additional revelation shifted our focus away from the manager onto the worker. We conducted focus groups with workers and designed a “Why Wash” video-based educational piece. It tested out very strongly, particularly in its ability to change behaviors when accompanied by advanced timesaving touch-free faucet technologies. Foodservice workers will wash frequently, when they know why . . . and when it is convenient.