Quick answer
Wash hands before food preparation and whenever a task or contact could contaminate them, including after raw food, waste, cleaning, toilet use and touching phones or the face. Use an effective soap-and-water technique, rinse and dry thoroughly. Gloves and hand gel do not replace the required washing.
Hands connect tasks and shared surfaces
A person can use a clean board yet transfer contamination after touching raw packaging or a phone. Handwashing belongs at those transitions, not only the start of the shift.
The FSA handwashing method explains technique and trigger points. CookSafe’s hygiene guidance provides Scottish catering advice.
Recognise the trigger points
| When | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Before preparing or handling food | Begin the task with effective hygiene. |
| After raw food or its packaging | Interrupt a raw-to-ready-to-eat route. |
| After waste or cleaning | Remove contamination introduced by that task. |
| After toilet use or a break | Restore hygiene before returning to food work. |
| After the face, hair, nose or a dressing | Interrupt a personal-contact route. |
| After phones, handles or money | Recognise ordinary touch points. |
| When gloves change or are removed | Do not treat gloves as a permanent clean barrier. |
Map other relevant transitions in the actual workflow. Handwashing also needs to work alongside the business’s illness-reporting arrangements.
Use the whole washing and drying technique
- Wet hands with warm running water and apply liquid soap.
- Work the lather over palms and the backs of both hands.
- Clean between fingers, around thumbs and over fingertips.
- Rinse the soap away with clean running water.
- Dry thoroughly using the hygienic method, normally a disposable towel in the cited guidance.
- Avoid recontamination at a hand-operated tap or on the return to work.
Do not rush rubbing, rinsing or drying. Use the recognised workplace method and check that a learner can demonstrate it rather than only name the steps.
Gloves and hand rubs are additional precautions
FSA cross-contamination guidance says gels must not replace handwashing and gloves are not a substitute either. Change gloves between relevant tasks, after contamination and when damaged, with handwashing at the appropriate change or removal points.
A glove used on raw packaging and then a sandwich utensil can carry the same route as an unwashed hand. Choose arrangements that suit the task rather than assume more glove use is automatically safer.
Worked example: a phone interrupts preparation
Hypothetical example: an employee checks a phone during ready-to-eat preparation and immediately reaches for the next portion. The supervisor identifies the interruption as a contamination route requiring hand hygiene.
The team agrees where devices are kept and how urgent communications are handled. A poster would be less useful if ordinary work still required repeated contact with shared devices between food tasks.
Make the routine possible and correct failures
Keep the facility accessible and supplied. If water, soap or hygienic drying is unavailable, report it and follow the contingency method; do not continue affected food work on the assumption that gel solves it.
If a missed wash may have contaminated ready-to-eat food, stop the route and use the corrective procedure. Protect skin through sensible work arrangements and appropriate advice without reducing required washing; see the wet-work skin guide.
Next steps
Map task changes, check supplies and observe the technique. Correct missed steps and fix workflow problems rather than rely only on reminders.
Read the official handwashing method — Use a recognised technique at the correct task changes.