The cold and flu season is upon us. Now more than ever before people are extremely aware of spreading germs, preventing the spread of flu and hand washing. I know everyone is aware of the proper method of hand washing, but do you know the best way to dry your hands and why it is so important?
According to an article from Tissue World by Roger Gaudreault, PhD, moisture left on hands not properly washed and dried is the single largest determining factor for hand hygiene and the spread of germs.
So what is the best method of drying your hands; is it air dryers, disposable guest towels or reusable cloth towels? Some of you might be surprised to learn that the most sanitary way to dry your hands is using disposable guest towels.
The reason disposable guest towels are the best option is because they minimize the spread of bacteria compared to air dryers or reusable towels. When you use a disposable guest towel, any bacteria remaining on your hands after washing is transferred from your wet hands to the disposable guest towel. Since it is a single use disposable product, you do not have to worry about the spread of germs.
I’m sure you may think air dryers would be the better choice, but what you may not realize is that air dryers can potentially spread bacteria back onto your hands or body as well as in the surrounding area. I don’t think I need to give you a lot of detail on how ineffective reusable towels are, but wanted you to know that when cloth gets wet, its absorbency drops and bacteria are only reduced by drying hands with absorbent materials.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both recommend that hands be thoroughly dried using disposable guest towels. So look for disposable guest towels when using a public washroom or add them to your home when entertaining guests. Keep everyone happy and healthy this cold and flu season and use a Hoffmaster® guest towel to dry your hands!
For more information about Hoffmaster® disposable guest towels check out our website.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Hoffmaster® H1N1 Toolkit
Now, more than ever before, there’s a huge focus on sanitation. This focus is very broad and expands from your home, to your children’s school, to college campuses, to restaurants. Disposable, single-use products will help keep surfaces sanitary and you and your family healthy.
Single-use tabletop products such as placemats and napkins are key when talking about sanitation and disease prevention.
Single-use products came into use as the answer to the spread of infectious and contagious diseases at a time when common drinking cups, plates, and utensils were the norm in society. In fact, the first single-use foodservice product was called the Health Cup, a name that described the cup’s primary benefit and value. It was sold to schools, hospitals, tubercular facilities and other places where infectious diseases could be communicated through unsanitary reusables.
Today, a hundred years after the invention of the Health Cup, the U.S. FDA’s Food Code requires foodservice operations to use single-use products whenever a facility’s dishwashing capability is compromised by equipment breakage, power failures, or inadequate dishwashing (such as low water temperature, weak detergent, etc.). For this reason alone, all foodservice operators need to have a supply of single-use foodservice packaging products on hand.
The sanitary benefits of single-use products have been proven in many studies over the years, and most recently in two studies: one in 2003 in Las Vegas conducted for the Food and Packaging Institute by the Clark County Public Health District that compared the sanitary aspects single-use and permanent ware items in Las Vegas eating establishments, and one in 2006 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, conducted for the Food and Packaging Institute by the University of Wisconsin that studied tabletop bacterial contamination of restaurants that used placemats versus uncovered tables.
The Las Vegas study found “reusable foodservice items had higher microbiological levels than disposable items” and the Wisconsin study found that “single-use placemats were shown, on average, to have over seven times fewer bacteria than uncovered tables in restaurants.”
The reason that single-use products are more sanitary than their reusable counterpart is simple: very often dishwashers don’t heat water to 140° C, the temperature necessary to assure sanitation. In some instances, the water is hot enough, but not enough detergent is added. In other cases, permanent ware is recontaminated by workers when they place items back into storage.
Single-use tabletop products such as placemats and napkins are key when talking about sanitation and disease prevention.
Single-use products came into use as the answer to the spread of infectious and contagious diseases at a time when common drinking cups, plates, and utensils were the norm in society. In fact, the first single-use foodservice product was called the Health Cup, a name that described the cup’s primary benefit and value. It was sold to schools, hospitals, tubercular facilities and other places where infectious diseases could be communicated through unsanitary reusables.
Today, a hundred years after the invention of the Health Cup, the U.S. FDA’s Food Code requires foodservice operations to use single-use products whenever a facility’s dishwashing capability is compromised by equipment breakage, power failures, or inadequate dishwashing (such as low water temperature, weak detergent, etc.). For this reason alone, all foodservice operators need to have a supply of single-use foodservice packaging products on hand.
The sanitary benefits of single-use products have been proven in many studies over the years, and most recently in two studies: one in 2003 in Las Vegas conducted for the Food and Packaging Institute by the Clark County Public Health District that compared the sanitary aspects single-use and permanent ware items in Las Vegas eating establishments, and one in 2006 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, conducted for the Food and Packaging Institute by the University of Wisconsin that studied tabletop bacterial contamination of restaurants that used placemats versus uncovered tables.
The Las Vegas study found “reusable foodservice items had higher microbiological levels than disposable items” and the Wisconsin study found that “single-use placemats were shown, on average, to have over seven times fewer bacteria than uncovered tables in restaurants.”
The reason that single-use products are more sanitary than their reusable counterpart is simple: very often dishwashers don’t heat water to 140° C, the temperature necessary to assure sanitation. In some instances, the water is hot enough, but not enough detergent is added. In other cases, permanent ware is recontaminated by workers when they place items back into storage.
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