Guidelines for configuring hand washing stations in food establishments
A hand washing facility is a purpose-designed facility for washing hands, equipped with clean running water (preferably warm), soap, and means of hygienic drying (e.g. single-use towels or hot air dryers), defined in CAC’s General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969).
Hand washing station facilities are the basic hygienic configuration of the food and beverage factories. Although hand-washing facilities have a single purpose and relatively simple functions, washing hands is the most basic hygiene and cleaning work for food companies. Without reasonable allocation of hand-washing facilities, there will be a lot of trouble in the future.
What should we consider when configuring hand-washing facilities?
Which places need to be equipped with hand washing facilities?
There are at least 3 places that need to be configured:
- Workshop entrance
- Inside the workshop (when needed)
- Toilet
Problem:
- Many companies often ignore the configuration of hand-washing facilities inside the food workshop, as well as the configuration of hand-washing facilities at the entrance to the clean workshop after the second change of clothes. The reason is mainly because the reserved space is too small, and traditional hand washing facilities + drying facilities + disinfection facilities cannot be put in.
Solution:
- The WONE’s hand washing, drying, and disinfecting machine is highly integrated with hand washing + cleaning + drying + disinfection functions. It occupies a small area and is suitable for use in small spaces.
How many hand-washing facilities should be configured to ensure efficient and smooth hand-washing processes?
Food and beverage factories often decide the number of handwashing facilities based on the following three aspects:
- The number of employees entering the workshop in the same shift
- Time for employees to complete hand washing and disinfection operations
- Multiple employees enter the workshop to ensure a smooth handwashing-cleaning-drying-disinfection process.
Among them, the time it takes for employees to complete hand washing and disinfection operations depends on the following three factors:
- Hand washing–cleaning time
- Drying time
- Disinfection time
Since food companies operate according to the seven-step handwashing method, the time of hand washing and cleaning is relatively fixed. Therefore, the key points that affect the time for employees to complete handwashing and disinfection operations are:
- Drying efficiency
- Disinfection efficiency
Problem:
- Some companies have too few dryers, or the drying efficiency is low, which often results in employees queuing up to dry or not drying after washing their hands. Secondly, some companies use sodium hypochlorite for disinfection. There is a time requirement for sodium hypochlorite soaking, and soaking is still difficult. Requires flushing. Therefore, the complete hand-washing process takes a long time
Solution:
- WONE’s personnel hand hygiene stations and hand washing, drying, and disinfecting machines are equipped with:
-10S quick drying equipment
-Fast-acting hand sanitizer
This greatly improves the efficiency of drying and disinfection, thereby reducing the overall time spent on hand washing and disinfection, and improving the work efficiency in the workshop.
What kind of hand washing facilities should be installed so that they can be used for a long time?
Hand washing facilities, like other production equipment, should be made of non-toxic, odorless, corrosion-resistant, and non-shedding materials, and should be easy to clean and maintain. Hand-washing facilities can be said to be the most frequently used equipment in the workshop, and they need to be repeatedly washed with detergents and disinfectants during the hand-washing process. Therefore, they should be particularly corrosion-resistant, durable, and easy to clean.
Problem:
- Although some companies are equipped with stainless steel hand-washing sinks, the stainless steel grade is not high enough and may still be corroded. Moreover, the stainless steel hand-washing sinks have design flaws such as right angles, which can easily cause dirt to accumulate, eventually leading to the outage of hand-washing facilities.
Solution:
- Our hand washing, drying, and disinfecting machine has the following characteristics to ensure the long-lasting durability of the equipment:
-The whole machine is made of 304 stainless steel, made by automatic welding, and molded in one go.
– Reasonable hygienic design, curved bottom to prevent dirt accumulation
-The automatic sensing function passed precise testing experiments
What kind of hand-washing facilities should be installed so as not to cause contamination?
Problem:
Strictly speaking, the presence of handwashing facilities may bring the following risks:
- Inadequate hand washing risks microbial contamination
- Splashing water for hand washing may cause splash contamination
- Using too much soap and disinfectant may lead to the risk of residual disinfectant
- The combination of hand washing facilities + soap + disinfectant will bring food protection risks.
For food safety control, on the one hand, we do not want chemicals to be present on-site, but on the other hand, hand washing and disinfection operations must be completed on-site. Therefore, we must be careful about the above-mentioned risks when it comes to handwashing facilities.
Solution:
The United Food Safety Hand Washing, Drying and Disinfecting Machine has the following functions to solve the risks that may be caused by hand washing facilities
- Adequate hand-washing process signs to guide employees to wash their hands properly
- It has a liquid shortage reminder function to avoid the embarrassment of incomplete cleaning due to a lack of soap and disinfectant.
- Waterproof design to effectively avoid possible cross-contamination when used inside the workshop
- Quantitative supply of soap and disinfectant to avoid uncertainty in the usage of soap and disinfectant, resulting in shortage or residue
- A sealed solution storage tank prevents employees from taking large amounts of solution and achieves effective food protection
Share the application cases of our hand-washing facilities in food and beverage factories.
In summary, food and beverage factories should strategically configure convenient hand-washing facilities based on their production scale and workflows. This helps raise employee hygiene awareness, ensure the safety of the production process, and maintain the company’s reputation and credibility.
