"Get your dirty hands off that!"

The nation's kitchens harbour legions for slovenly chefs whose filthy habits make millions of us sick every year

By Henry Rank

What with influenza scares, worries about SARS and avian flu, and headlines which tell of mass food poisonings at fast food chains and church picnics alike, an old remedy is making a comeback: washing your hands.

This latter point was emphasized in a recent issue of The Journal of the American Dietetic Association which proclaimed that in the US, "food borne diseases are estimated to cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths" every year. By that measure, millions of Canadians are similarly at risk of food poisoning annually from lack of hygiene in kitchens across the country � perhaps even in yours.

Fully 25% of the illnesses were attributed to "inappropriate consumer food-handling and preparation practices in the home." The article concluded the main culprit was the inadequate washing of hands.

That said, given the stringent rules laid out for properly handling food � and the flagrant violations the study's authors noted in the habits of practically every one of the 92 food preparers observed, it's something of a miracle that any of us are still standing. Dirty handed chefs cross-contaminated meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, unwashed vegetables and ready-to-eat items. To make matters worse, most of them then undercooked the ingredients, presumably leaving the food teeming with bacteria and viruses. Only a few of the participants used a cooking thermometer on meats and poultry to ensure that internal temperatures were sufficiently high to kill off the microbes.

ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAPS NIXED
A related study concluded that anti-bacterial soaps and other products offer no protection against viral infections. Columbia University researchers studied the use of such products in 120 New York City households for a year.

The lead author, Elaine Larson, said that the study only confirmed what most doctors already knew � but what most consumers weren't nearly so clear about. "People think... that if they use an anti-bacterial soap, it will keep them from getting an infection. What we found is that these products don't offer much added value."

Brian Sansoni, speaking for the Soap and Detergent Association, protested that the study tested the products against viruses they weren't designed to fight. He went on to say that other studies show the household cleaning products do kill organisms that cause illnesses including food poisoning. The Columbia study came to no conclusion on whether the products reduced bacterial infections. The results appeared in the March issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.