Bacterial hand contamination and hygiene practices among food handlers

Hands of food handlers are known to be the vehicle for microorganism transmission that may lead to food contamination. This study aims to determine the microbial contamination on dominant hands of food handlers related to their hygiene practices. This cross-sectional study design recruited a total of 41 food handlers from selected twenty food premises in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, who were selected by convenience sampling method. The participants were given a questionnaire gathering sociodemographic data and their hand hygiene practices. Hand swabs were taken during preshift and mid-shift of food preparation which were isolated and enumerated for total plate counts. Identification of S. aureus and E. Coli, gram staining and biochemical test were further conducted. The median and interquartile range (IQR) of total plate counts during pre-shift and mid-shift was 2.17x108 (2.28x108) CFU/ml and 1.28x108 (1.79x108) CFU/ml, respectively. There was no significant difference of microbial counts found on food handlers’ hands between these two periods of food preparation. Of total, 51.2% (n= 21) of food handlers’ hand were contaminated with S. aureus during pre-shift whereas 19 of food handlers’ hand were contaminated during mid-shift. In contrast, none of the food handlers’ hands were contaminated with E. coli during pre-shift. While during mid-shift, there were 2 (4.9%) food handlers who had positive presence of E. coli on their hands. There is no significant association between hand hygiene practices with microbial contaminations. This study suggested that effective hand washing practice among food handlers are needed in order to reduce microbial food contamination.