Assessment of hand washing facilities, personal hygiene and the bacteriological quality of handwashes in some grocery and dairy shops in Alexandria, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Food produced with satisfactory hygienic standards is one of the essential conditions for promoting and preserving health. A total of 15 grocery and dairy shops were randomly selected from Alexandria, Egypt to assess their hand washing facilities and personal hygiene of food handlers using a pre-designed sanitation checklist. Also the bacteriological profile of the handlers' hand washes was determined. Only 20% of these shops were acceptable concerning their hand washing facilities [>/= 50% score percentages]. Observing 29 food handlers revealed that only 3.4% of them were acceptable in their personal hygiene with a mean score percentage of only 31.0 +/- 9.2. Although the hand washing method followed by the food handlers significantly decreased both aerobic mesophilic and staphylococci counts, they were still high. Moreover, fecal coliforms increased insignificantly from 5 to 7 MPN/100ml indicating that the hand washing was improperly done due several pitfalls. Most of the handlers who washed their hands for less than 10 seconds [41.4%] had higher counts of aerobic mesophiles and staphylococci than those who washed for more 10 seconds. Most of the handlers [93.1%] did not avoid contamination from the tap after hand washing. Moreover, their hand washes were contaminated with fecal coliforms [8 MPN/100ml] and with slightly higher staphylococci counts than those who avoid contamination either by rinsing a tap or closing it by elbow. Recommendations: Much effort should be done from the responsible authority to improve the sanitation inside these shops and food handlers should be given inservice training to know how to efficiently wash their hands