Cannabis Trainers: A Story of Poo
Are you an excellent hand washer?
Almost everyone answers this question with a big “YES!”
The reality? Researchers let us know that most people don’t wash their hands thoroughly or frequently. Especially men… sorry fellas!
I know, I understand that this sounds super basic. However, it is an integral part of ensuring that your business doesn’t contribute to any of the millions of food borne illnesses each year in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 48 million cases of food borne illness, 128,000 hospitalizations and 3000 deaths resulting from food borne illness.
For us in the cannabis industry, many of our products are known as “ready to eat foods” or, foods that do not require heating prior to eating. This allows us to keep things a bit simpler for our customers and patients. The most prevalent foodborne illness is the norovirus, which is linked to ready to eat foods and poor personal hygiene factors.
Keep in mind that even though we [typically] are not working with high risk foods (think: poultry, fish, beef etc.), we may very likely be creating food for a high risk population (patients with compromised immune systems), and great personal hygiene is imperative.
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Is your team using gloves or utensils to handle all ready to eat foods?
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Do you wash hands prior to gloving?
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Are hands being washed with at least 100*F water for 20 seconds?
One tool that I like to use in our food safety classes to illustrate the point that hand washing is typically done quickly and poorly is GloGerm. This highlights where the areas for improvement are for each person with hand washing.
I am often asked about hand sanitizer. For all you busy people out there… listen up! Hand sanitizer does NOT replace hand washing ever.
Seriously- never. Here is my analogy for you:
Hand sanitizer on dirty hands is like whipped cream on poop. You’re welcome for that mental image.
Frequent, thorough hand washing is essential to ensure that your team creates food safely and with integrity. The truth is, fecal contamination is a big deal. And although we may all claim that we are great hand washers, there is often room for improvement.
Ready to learn more? Join us for one of our ServSafe Food Handler courses that we customize to the specific needs of the cannabis industry.
www.CannabisTrainers.com
