How To Conquer Cross Contamination And Capitalize On Cleanable Moments

Serving patrons a premium guest experience requires careful consideration of many details. Yet, in today’s landscape of highly-covered (and highly-costly) outbreaks across the news and social media, restaurant owners are tasked with keeping Norovirus or other harmful pathogens from betraying their customers’ loyalty and trust. With food safety and cross-contamination at the forefront of concern, reclaiming the guest experience begins with establishing guidelines to set yourself and your guests up for safety and success: guidelines that reach beyond the food code and tap into the unique opportunities within your own environment.

During National Food Safety Month, cross-contamination is commonly covered in regards to back-of-house best practices, like the handling of raw meat, poultry, and fish. Instead, consider the touchpoints beyond food preparation that play a role in spreading germs throughout your restaurant. What are front-of-house staff members transmitting when they deliver food?

 What risk do cashiers who handle money pose? What pathogens are patrons bringing with them? You can avert these challenges by creating a space that enables everyone to interact with solutions that protect themselves and others from illness. To address the entire chain of infection, focus on the two main transfer vehicles for disease: hands and surfaces.

Don’t Give Foodborne Illnesses a Hand

Restaurants are naturally interactive environments, which makes disciplined and consistent hand sanitization an opportunity to make safer connections with patrons. “Hand hygiene is the single most important step we can take to prevent the spread of germs,” says Dr. David Macinga, Clinical Science Senior Director at GOJO Industries, Inc. “Studies have shown that hands are the number one way we transmit germs to one another.”

Provide your staff and guests with an effective solution they can trust to stop cross contamination in its tracks, like PURELL® Hand Sanitizer. This easy to use hand sanitizer gel is America’s #1 brand of instant hand sanitizer1 and kills 99.99% of most common germs that may cause foodborne illness, like E.coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Campylobacter. Not only does PURELL® Hand Sanitizer offer cost savings by outperforming other hand sanitizers ounce-for-ounce2, but a variety of dispensers, bottles, and stands make it easy to place hand hygiene solutions where guests and staff need them most in your restaurant, whenever they need them.

Breaking the Surface of Cross Contamination

Because hands, food, utensils and more come in-contact with surfaces in every restaurant, diligent surface sanitization can be the difference between providing great guest experiences and finding yourself in the midst of a Norovirus outbreak. In the fast-paced world of turning over tables and serving customers as efficiently as possible, however, you need a portable sanitizer that doesn’t slow you down.

PURELL® Foodservice Surface Sanitizer is a one-step sanitizer and cleaner that’s powerful enough to kill Norovirus, Salmonella, E. coli, and 24 other germs in just 30 seconds. The worry-free formulation is safe to use around patrons of all ages: no rinse required for food-contact surfaces, no handwashing, gloving or precautionary label statements necessary. You can use PURELL® Foodservice Surface Sanitizer to eliminate cross contamination risk on the hard and soft surfaces like tables and chairs, vinyl booths, menus and high chairs in your environment.

Sources

1. Kline Report, September 2014, Section 3C-20; IRI, Multi-Outlet, 2015.
2. Ounce for ounce kills more germs than other national brands when used on hands in accordance