Evaluation of hand hygiene of food handlers from Municipality of Ji-Paraná, Rondônia State, Brazil

Abstract

The occurrence of food trades is expanding due to the increasing number of food consumed away from home, however these trades have not always stood for quality. Bacteria are the main cause of food contamination, among those there are Staphylococcus aureus, mesophile and total coliforms. In order to evaluate the presence of microorganisms that indicate the lack of hygiene in the hands of food handlers, three samples were taken from five establishments on alternate days, totaling 15 samples. The samples collected from the hands of the food handlers were inoculated in the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Plates for quantitative analysis of colony forming units. It was observed that all samples were nonstandard according to the Pan American Health Organization that determines the maximum response count of 10² CFU/hand, above this value is considered contamination. Evaluating the five establishments analyzed, the fourth and fifth places were the ones which had higher levels of microbiological contamination, but all establishments had higher infection rates than required for the three examined microorganisms. It is concluded that the lack of information about how to sanitize the hands correctly may result in the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to food, which may affect the consumer health seriously.