A study of hand washing practices among the chefs of the registered restaurants in Pune Cantonment

Background An important aspect of food safety is hand hygiene that can decrease food borne infections manifold. With the boom in the Indian food-service industry, hand washing practices among chefs gain special significance. Objectives To estimate the knowledge, describe the hand washing practices of the chefs & observe the hand washing facilities. Methods A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among the chefs of registered restaurants in Pune Cantonment selected through multi stage random sampling. A pre tested and pre designed interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection which also included a checklist for the hand washing facilities. Results Among the 174 chefs, the mean age was 27.9 (+7.9) years. Of them 144 (82.8%) of the chefs considered hand washing important but only 66 (45.8%) were aware of the correct technique. The importance of hand washing and its proper technique was not the part of the training curriculum for 125 (71.8%) of the chefs. Soaps were used by 119 (68.4%) chefs for washing hands while 19 (10.9%) used plain water. Out of 87 restaurants, 26 (29.9%) had hand washing stations inside toilets and only 25 (28.7%) had hand washing stations in cooking areas. Interpretations & Conclusions Most of the respondents were aware of the necessary health aspects of hand washing but their practice was unsatisfactory. This needs to be redressed by regular & mandatory training, reinforcements in the form of posters, workshops etc. and implementing Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), 2006 guidelines in letter and spirit