Indications on Hands Washing and Drying provided by the WUWM for Food Preparation Businesses

The World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM) is a non-profit association that engages in all fields and activities related to the promotion, development and international exchange of expertise and information on wholesale food markets.

WUWM presently has 200 members within 45 countries worldwide.
The World Union of Wholesale Markets has developed a  “European Community Guide to Good Hygienic Practices Specific to Wholesale Market Management”.

The Guide covers areas which include: 

Food preparation  WUWM hand washing

  • Safe Food Preparation
  • Food Service Safety
  • Food Safety Equipments
  • Food Preparation Hygiene
  • Food sanitation and Hygiene

Among the chapters covered by the Guide, there one titled:
Personal hygiene: including toilets, wash hand basins, showers, cloakroom facilities, etc, when they are within public areas”

About Hands Washing the Guide Provides the following indications:

“An adequate number of washbasins are to be available, suitably located and designated for  cleaning hands. Washbasins for cleaning hands are to be provided with hot and cold running water, materials for cleaning hands and for hygienic drying. Where necessary, the facilities for washing food are to be separate from the hand-washing facility.
….
Food businesses are generally responsible for such items as:
– the type of soap used (bactericidal if possible but not perfumed, especially in food preparation rooms);
– bins (preferably foot operated if disposable paper towels are used);
air dryers or roller towels should not be used in food preparation rooms as their installation may induce contamination (risk of germ dissemination through air movements for air dryers for instance), paper towels are recommended.”

Below is the link to the complete document, the part which addresses Hands Drying is in page 27   (or 32/77 in the pdf file).

Community Guide to Good Hygienic Practices Specific to Wholesale Market Management in the European Union

Indications on Hands Washing and Drying included in the document “Guidelines on HACCP, GMP and GHP for ASEAN Food SMEs”

These guidelines have been developed in the framework of the Food Sub-programme of the EC-ASEAN Economic Cooperation Programme on Standards, Quality and Conformity Assessment, 2003-2005. This programme funded by the European Commission was implemented by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).

The guidelines propose an innovative method towards food hygiene and HACCP for Small and Medium Enterprises of the food sector, entitled Comprehensive Hygiene Management.
This method has been elaborated by Dr. Richard Bonne; a French veterinary inspector and teacher with more than 20 years of professional experience in inspection in the food industry in Europe, Asia and Mediterranean countries.

The indication provided is the following:
“The device devoted to hand drying must be of single use (paper towels being practically the only possible solution).”

Below is the link to the complete document, Instructions for Hands drying are provided in page 24  (or 32/98 in the Pdf file).
Guidelines on HACCP, GMP and GHP for ASEAN Food SMEs

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