Tag Archives: Clean

Restaurant cleaning cloths pose health risk, says study

Posted on by
2

I have a number of anecdotal studies going on whenever I go to the supermarket, a restaurant, a baby doctor, and other places.

When we go to a roadhouse-style restaurant, I often watch the servers clean the table with some sort of cloth, and I’ll ask, what is the cloth cleaned with or soaked in? They usually point to some sorta sanitary solution, but aren’t too knowledgeable about how often it’s changed or cleaned. Same with those aprons the chefs are always wiping their hands on – I have dreams of large sample sizes.

The U.K. Health Protection Agency does have some resources so set about to sample those clothes used to wipe down tables in restaurants and takeaways and found they are often contaminated with E coli, listeria and other potentially dangerous bacteria.

The Guardian reports that cloths used to clean surfaces where food is prepared need to be changed regularly or thoroughly disinfected to prevent the growth of bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

HPA researchers sampled 133 cloths used for cleaning in 120 restaurants and takeaways in the north-east of England. They told the HPA’s annual conference at the University of Warwick today that 56% of the cloths contained unacceptable levels of bacteria. The most common were enterobacteriaceae (found on 86 cloths) E coli (21), Staphylococcus aureus (six) and listeria (five).

Only a third of restaurant kitchens (32%) were following the recommendation to use disposable cloths and change them regularly. The remainder had reusable cloths; in 15% of the kitchens, staff were unsure how often they were replaced.

John Harford, of the HPA’s food, water and environmental microbiology laboratory, said there was no reason to suppose restaurant kitchens in the north-east operated differently from those elsewhere in the country. He pointed to the potentially serious consequences for those eating food in or from such restaurants, adding,

"We have had certain outbreaks of food poisoning at a restaurant where we have isolated salmonella from the person who has eaten the meal and we have found salmonella on the cloth in the kitchen as well.”

While most restaurants disinfected their reusable cloths every 10 to 24 hours, a number of restaurants left it longer than 24 hours and some did not know how often their cloths were disinfected.
 

Norovirus sickens up to 200; Harvard club closed again

Posted on by
1

Don’t them Harvard boys know nothin’?

Never reopen a place until you’re sure the norovirus has been taken care of and all employees are healthy.

Following reports of a small norovirus outbreak linked to the Harvard Faculty Club last week, the Boston Globe reports this morning that as many as 200 people may have been affected by a norovirus outbreak, forcing the restaurant and lodge to close for a second time.

The club, which closed last week because of concerns about the virus, shut down again Tuesday as about 100 people reported becoming ill after eating at the club between Easter brunch Sunday and Tuesday morning.

To be fair, everyone is saying the right things, but noro outbreaks are often far more serious and insidious than people realize.

Louise Rice, director of public nursing for the city, explained Harvard voluntarily closed the club when the first wave of illnesses was reported last week, and the club brought in an outside cleaning crew to scrub the building down, The city inspected the club, and Rice said the building was “spotless.’’

The city also screened full- and part-time employees at the club, about 100 of them, before it reopened Sunday, she said.

But by Tuesday morning, Harvard notified the city that a number of people had reported becoming ill after eating at the club between Easter Brunch and Tuesday morning.

There seems to be some sort of disconnect between words and actions.

Shock and shame, Swedish version for clean water

Posted on by
Reply

What has been called a disturbing but effective ad from the Church of Sweden, shows a mother filling a baby bottle with dirty dishwater and then feeding it to her child, to highlight the plight of countries worldwide that don’t have access to clean drinking water.

The campaign has raised over US$ 32,500 for church-sponsored water and sanitation projects but at the same time it has upset some Swedish viewers.

The reactions to the film have included criticism that the woman in the ad is white, giving the dirty water to a white baby. That was one reaction the [Church of Sweden] said it hadn’t expected.”

“Margareta Grape, the [Church of Sweden’s] foreign minister, said in a press statement that she believes people need thought-provoking and challenging images like those contained in the ad to wake up and realize that clean water issue are severe, but also that they can be solved."

Poorly cleaned public cruise ship restrooms may predict norovirus outbreaks

Posted on by
Reply

Chapman says that while dirty bathrooms can be gross, like the gotcha moments on hidden camera programs, there really isn’t any information that suggests a place with a dirty bathroom is any more or less likely to cause an outbreak than a place with a clean bathroom. Lots of restaurants have separate handwashing facilities in the kitchen, and risk-based inspection systems focus on factors that lead to illness as identified by the CDC and WHO — not the floors, walls and ceilings, and how many flies are on a fly strip.

But what about on cruise ships?

A team of researchers from Boston University School (BUSM), Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, have found that widespread poor compliance with regular cleaning of public restrooms on cruise ships may predict subsequent norovirus infection outbreaks (NoVOs).

This study, which appears in the November 1st issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, is the first study of environmental hygiene on cruise ships.
Outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) often occur in close populations, such as among cruise ship passengers. Recent epidemiologic investigations of outbreaks of AGE confirmed that 95 percent of cruise ship AGE outbreaks are caused by norovirus.

Despite biannual sanitation monitoring and hand hygiene interventions among passengers and crew members, 66 ships monitored by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experienced NoV infection outbreaks (NoVOs) between 2003 and 2008.

Trained health care professionals evaluated the thoroughness of disinfection cleaning of six standardized objects (toilet seat, flush handle or button, toilet stall inner handhold, stall inner door handle, restroom inner door handle, and baby changing table surfaces) with high potential for fecal contamination in cruise ship public restrooms.

The researchers found only 37 percent of the 273 randomly selected public restrooms that were evaluated on 1,546 occasions were cleaned daily. The overall cleanliness of the six standardized surfaces on each ship ranged from four to 100 percent. Although some objects in most restrooms were cleaned at least daily, on 275 occasions no objects in a restroom were cleaned for at least 24 hours.
 

Poland: ‘We want to live in a country that doesn’t stink’

Posted on by
Reply

Poland’s soccer team may suck, but the co-host of the 2012 UEFA Euro championships wants to make sure the toilets sparkle.

Arkadiusz Choczaj, leader of the so-called "Clean Patrol" campaign, told reporters in Warsaw,

"Our toilets are better prepared for these championships than our football players.”

"Clean Patrols", made up of volunteer inspectors dressed in white overalls, recently sniffed around 200 public toilets in six Polish cities slated as Euro 2012 venues or back-ups. The "Clean Patrol" project was co-sponsored by CWS-boco, a sanitary products supplier.

Public potties were rated on accessibility, hygiene, smell and whether toilet paper, soap and hand towels were available.

Just one toilet scored a perfect 100 points, while a three-quarters majority rated 65 points, the basic acceptable standard.

Loos in airports, hotels, restaurants and cafes were rated the highest by both the patrols and tourists surveyed by the independent TNS OBOP pollsters. Poland’s tourist-magnet southern city of Krakow received the highest ratings.

At the bottom of the rankings were a quarter of public restrooms — in train and bus stations, on trains and in camp grounds — rated as danger zones by the patrols and foreign tourists alike.

Jan Orgelbrand, head of Poland’s Chief Sanitary Inspectorate said,

"Regardless of the Euro finals, we have to improve standards because, let’s face it, we want to live in a country that doesn’t stink.”

"Not every football fan or tourist will get to the stadium, but all will visit our public lavatories and their standard speaks about Poland as a nation."
 

If you yak on your cat, what’s the best way to clean it and avoid norovirus transmission?

Posted on by
Reply

Amy has covered what to do if a student pukes in class; Ben and Mayra have made up a groovy infosheet on cleaning procedures.

But what if you yak on your cat or dog?

Specifically, as Scott Weese asks at the Worms & Germs Blog, when he should be enjoying turkey in Guelph, how do you disinfect a cat?

Weese explains how a colleague’s wife once had norovirus and spewed on the family cat, and says, dogs and cats cannot become infected with norovirus. However, they could act as a source of infection is their coat was contaminated.

Weese figures a bath is the best way to go (not the oven, right) and that anyone bathing a heavily contaminated animal should wear a mask and gloves, change their clothes after, clean any contaminated surfaces with bleach or another disinfectant and wash their hands.

He also concludes that the easiest way to handle this is to avoid vomiting on pets.

Do you like safefood Ireland’s new advert?

Posted on by
1

The Don’t Take Risks campaign focuses on food hygiene in the domestic kitchen. To help minimise the risks of food poisoning in the home, the  advertising combines dramatic kitchen images and an ominous voiceover with a journey into the microscopic world of food poisoning bacteria to deliver powerful messages to consumers.

Most people think they wash their hands and utensils properly while preparing food and that they cook meat and chicken thoroughly. The truth is, all too often, they don’t. This campaign is a powerful, visual reminder to consumers of the dangers of poor food safety behaviour, as they may often be unaware of how their day to day food preparation habits can cause themselves and others harm.
By following some simple food hygiene practices, consumers can help prevent the spread of food poisoning bacteria around the kitchen.

A recent safefood study recorded the food hygiene practices of 120 participants to look at the way in which people prepare meals in their homes. The participants, who were recruited from throughout the island of Ireland, prepared two meals: a homemade beef burger and a warm chicken salad.

There were two phases of the study:

* phase 1 – conducted in test kitchen and
* phase 2 – conducted in participants’ own homes.

Each phase involved 60 participants and there were equal numbers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

In the test kitchen study, participants were asked to prepare the meals as they would normally at home and swabs were taken at various points in the kitchen and samples were taken of the salad and cooked meat. The swabs and samples were analysed for the presence of raw meat bacteria. Throughout the session, the participants’ food handling practices were observed via web-cams.

In the domestic kitchen study, arrangements were made for the researchers to visit at a suitable time for the participants to prepare the required meals.

Participants’ food handling practices were observed via web-cams. Swabs were taken from four kitchen areas as well as participants’ hands and from samples of the prepared meals to test for the presence of bacteria.

The research findings highlighted real food safety issues in the kitchen relating to food preparation and hygiene, with highly risky behaviours around handwashing, preventing cross-contamination via kitchen utensils such as knives and chopping boards, and inadequate care taken to ensure that the chicken and mince were properly cooked.

For example:
* 84% of people did not wash hands properly after handling raw chicken
* 72% did not properly wash the knife used in preparing raw chicken before reusing it on salad vegetables
* more than a third of what participants considered to be ‘cooked’ beef burgers were contaminated with raw meat bacteria
* more than half of consumers did not thoroughly wash the chopping board used to prepare raw mince before reusing it to prepare salad
* one third of participants still had raw meat bacteria contamination on their hands after preparing the meals.

Scotland’s water coolers teeming with dangerous bacteria

Posted on by
Reply

My friend Dave got into the bottled water biz in the 1980s in Hamilton, Ontario, providing those 5-gallon jugs for water dispensers at home and offices. I never was into that stuff, but the 5-gallon plastic carboys that people haul to the grocery store for a refill are excellent secondary fermentation vessels for home beer production.

But, for those who work in an office, the water cooler is, I’m told, the place for gossip, flirting and bacteria.

The Sunday Herald reports that tests for watchdog organization, Consumer Focus Scotland, found potentially dangerous bacteria in drinking water dispensers in workplaces, schools and care homes. The group says the dispensers need to be better cleaned and maintained, and that the Scottish government, along with the Food Standards Agency, should review existing legislation because it is difficult to enforce.

Environmental health officers found bacterial contamination in 23 out of 87 water dispensers sampled in Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders. They tested for five types of bacteria known to cause illness, particularly in people who are vulnerable due to frailty or ill-health.

Water from bottle-supplied coolers was the most contaminated, with 14 out of 35 samples containing bacteria. Eight samples showed the presence of coliform bacteria, usually associated with faeces, and three contained staphylococcus aureus, which can cause serious illnesses.

Nine of the 52 samples from plumbed-in coolers taking water from the mains were also found to be contaminated, sometimes by more than one type of bacteria.

The contamination is thought to be due to the poor hygiene habits of some drinkers. Unwashed hands, putting mouths to taps and refilling dirty bottles could all be to blame.

ROB MANCINI: The nasty dishcloth

Posted on by
3

I have inspected a number of households that use the same dishcloth over and over again without laundering.  I used to do the same until my wife insisted that we launder our cloth daily.  

The porous nature of dishcloths allow for the accumulation of small particles of food thereby providing a moist, wonderful environment for bacterial growth. Bacterial counts including mold and yeast recovered from such cloths have been amazing, not to mention the smell. 

During my bachelor days, food safety and sanitation in general was somewhat questionable.  The dishcloth, rather, dishrag, would be changed when the smell became unbearable, probably not the best thing to do, kinda like guessing whether poultry is cooked without using a thermometer. 

It is simple, one could launder the cloth or place the cloth in a container of water in the microwave for a minute or so, that should do it. 

Fecal coliform bacteria, including E.coli were recovered in such numbers during the production of the television series Kitchen Crimes that were horrific — and don’t get me started on the amount of yeast and mold. I’m frightened as is. 

Every student’s nightmare? Puking in class

Posted on by
4

As I was beginning the listening section of an introductory French exam today, several students suddenly jumped up. Desks were screeching and I thought there must have been a cockroach or mouse in the room (both things have happened to me in the past at other universities). But no. A student in the front row was only vomiting on the floor and some of his neighbors happened to get hit. The students were all very cool and helpful – getting water and paper towels for the sick classmate. I sent the sick one home but he cleaned up most of his mess. I notified administration, sprayed the floor with some chemical spray, wiped up, and directed the students to another classroom. I went and washed my hands and facilities came within the next 15 minutes to mop the floors.

But what’s the protocol for handling other people’s puke? When I told Doug what happened he reminded me that if the student was sick with a virus like Noro, the germs could be aerosolized and make the rest of us ill. This particular student believed it was a problem with medicine, but to be safe … Washoe County Nevada Health Department suggests:

•    Staff should wear disposable gloves and aprons when cleaning up after ill guests, especially when handling vomit, diarrhea, or other bodily wastes. It is recommended that persons who clean areas substantially contaminated by feces and/or vomitus wear masks because spattering or aerosols of infectious material might result in disease transmission. Use of cleaning cloths and other items used to clean toilets should only be used for that purpose and should not be used from room to room. Do not use these items to clean other surfaces. Effective virucides should be used in bathrooms and high hand-contact areas in guest rooms such as taps, faucets, door and drawer handles, door latches, toilet or bath rails, telephones, rails on balconies, light and lamp switches, thermostats, remote controls, curtain pulls and wands, covers on guest information books, alarm clock buttons, hair dryers, irons, and pens.
•    Staff should promptly bag and clean soiled linens or dispose of them as infectious waste. Linens soiled with vomit or feces should be washed in a hot wash and dried at high temperature (drier temperature >170º F).
•    When responding to a Public Vomiting Incident (PVI), the area within at least a 25-foot radius should be cleaned and disinfected using the above procedures.
•    Staff should wash hands thoroughly using soap and water and then dry them thoroughly after completing the clean-up procedure and again after completing the disposal procedure.

A teacher named “Koko” blogged that when this happened in her classroom in China, she used dirt to cover the vomit, made sure it was dry, then swept, threw out the waste, and mopped afterwards. She made her students participate in the cleaning.