When and how food handlers must wash their hands: the moments, the method and the basin

Every food handler knows they should wash their hands. The trouble starts on a busy Friday night, when the basin is blocked with a stack of trays, the paper towels ran out at lunch and the answer to “when must food handlers wash their hands?” becomes “when there is time”. This post sets out the moments, the method and the basin, so the habit holds up when the pressure is on.

When must food handlers wash their hands?

Hands pick up bacteria and viruses from raw food, bodies, surfaces and money, then carry them straight onto food that will not be cooked again. On audits we ask food handlers to name the moments, and most can give three or four. The full list is longer. Wash your hands:

• When you start work, after changing into your uniform and before you touch any food or equipment.
• After handling raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs, before you touch anything else. Raw chicken is a common source of Campylobacter and Salmonella.
• After using the toilet. Norovirus and E. coli spread this way, and a single handler can make many customers ill.
• After touching bins, dirty cloths or waste, including taking out refuse and scraping plates.
• After handling cash, cards or your phone.
• After touching your face, hair, nose or mouth, and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose.
• After cleaning, especially after using chemicals.
• After a break, eating or smoking.
• Before handling ready-to-eat food, such as salads, sandwiches, desserts and cooked meat.
• Before putting on gloves and after taking them off.

R638 itself requires food handlers to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water at set times, including the start of each shift, after using the toilet, and after handling raw food before handling ready-to-eat food. A simple test for staff: if you have touched something that is not clean food or a clean utensil, and you are about to touch food, wash.

The method, step by step, and how long it really takes

Rinsing fingertips under the tap is not a handwash. The World Health Organization method takes 40 to 60 seconds from wetting to drying, and the usual guide is at least 20 seconds of rubbing with soap. Time it once with your team: it feels long the first time.

1. Wet your hands and wrists with warm running water.
2. Apply enough liquid soap to cover all hand surfaces.
3. Rub palm to palm.
4. Rub the back of each hand with the other palm, fingers interlaced.
5. Rub palm to palm with fingers interlaced, to clean between the fingers.
6. Rub the backs of the fingers against the opposite palm.
7. Rub each thumb, clasped in the other hand.
8. Rub the fingertips in the opposite palm, to clean under the nails.
9. Rinse thoroughly under running water.
10. Dry with a disposable paper towel, and use the towel to turn off the tap if it is not hands-free.
11. Throw the towel in a foot-operated bin.

Thumbs, fingertips and the backs of the hands are the areas people miss most. Short nails, no nail polish or false nails, and no jewellery except a plain band (if your policy allows it) make the job possible. A watch or a bracelet traps dirt and water no matter how well you wash.

Gloves and hand sanitiser: what they can and cannot replace

Gloves are not a replacement for clean hands. A glove protects food only while it is clean. We regularly watch a handler wear the same pair to cut raw chicken, wipe the counter, answer the phone and then plate a salad.

• Wash and dry hands before putting gloves on, so you do not contaminate the outside of the glove.
• Change gloves when you change tasks, when they tear and after touching anything dirty.
• Wash your hands again after taking gloves off. Hands sweat inside gloves and bacteria multiply.

Hand sanitiser has a place as an extra step after washing, for example at the entrance to a high care area. It does not remove grease, food residue or visible dirt, it is less effective on wet or soiled hands, and many alcohol sanitisers work poorly against norovirus. Sanitiser follows a proper wash; it never replaces one.

What a hand wash basin needs under R638

The R638 regulations require hand washing facilities for workers, with soap or another cleaning agent, a hygienic means of drying hands and hot water where possible. When an Environmental Health Practitioner inspects for a Certificate of Acceptability, the hand wash basin is one of the first things they look at, and they expect it to be separate from the sinks used for food and equipment. In practice, a basin that passes inspection has:

• Running potable water, with hot water as well as cold. R638 says hot water where possible; in a kitchen, warm water is what gets people to wash properly.
• Liquid soap in a dispenser, not a shared bar of soap.
• A hygienic way to dry hands, usually disposable paper towels.
• A bin for used towels, preferably foot-operated.
• A position close to where food is handled, so nobody has to walk across the kitchen to use it.
• A clear use: hand washing only. No defrosting, no washing vegetables, no rinsing cloths.

Taps that can be operated without hands (elbow, knee, foot or sensor) are good practice, because they stop clean hands touching a dirty tap. If you have standard taps, train staff to close them with the paper towel.

Where handwashing fails during a busy service

Handwashing rarely fails because staff do not know. It fails because the system makes it hard. We see the same causes again and again:

• The basin is blocked or used for storage. A bucket of mop water or a tray of dirty glasses in the basin means nobody washes.
• Consumables run out. No soap or no towels at 19:00 means hands get wiped on aprons.
• The basin is in the wrong place. One basin at the back door for a long kitchen line will not be used during service.
• Task switching. A cook who handles raw burgers and toasts the buns is switching between raw and ready-to-eat every few minutes.

A takeaway in Soweto had one cook grilling raw chicken pieces and also packing chips and coleslaw into the same box. The basin was two metres away, but it was also where the cook rinsed tongs. We moved tong washing to the pot sink, added a second set of colour-coded tongs for cooked chicken, and split the job between the cook and the packer at peak times. Handwashing improved because the job now allowed it, not because anyone shouted louder.

How supervisors check handwashing and make it a habit

Habits form when the right action is easy and when people see it noticed. Practical steps that work:

• Check the basin at the start of each shift: water running warm, soap full, towels stocked, bin emptied, nothing in the basin.
• Train the method, not just the rule. Show the steps, then have each handler demonstrate. A UV light box with a training lotion makes the missed spots visible and gets people talking.
• Lead by example. If the chef walks from the bins to the pass without washing, nobody else will wash either.
• Observe briefly and often. A five minute observation during service, recorded once a week, tells you more than a signed register.
• Give immediate, private feedback, and praise people who get it right.

R638 requires the person in charge to make sure food handlers are trained in food hygiene. Handwashing is the first skill on that list. Our online food hygiene awareness training for food handlers covers handwashing and personal hygiene in plain language, so every handler gets the same message and you have a training record to file.

What to do this week

• Walk to every hand wash basin and check it against the list above. Fix blocked or misused basins today.
• Set up a stock check for soap and paper towels at the start of each shift.
• Put up a method poster at each basin, in the languages your team speaks.
• Ask three staff to show you how they wash their hands, and time it.
• Look at one busy job where raw and ready-to-eat food are handled by the same person, and see how you can split it.
• Check that each food handler’s training record is on file.

Frequently asked questions

Can we use a food preparation sink to wash hands?

No. Hand washing should happen at a basin used only for hands. Washing hands in a food sink puts whatever is on the hands into the place where food is washed, and EHPs will flag it.

Is a hand dryer acceptable instead of paper towels?

Paper towels are the usual choice in food areas because they dry quickly and let staff close the tap without touching it. If you use a dryer, check that staff wait until their hands are fully dry.

Do waiters and cashiers also need to wash their hands?

Yes. Anyone who handles food, plates, cutlery or glasses is a food handler. Waiters who touch money and then carry bread rolls or garnish drinks need the same habit.