When to wash

  • Before you start food work and before you put on gloves
  • After the restroom (wash twice; see below)
  • After touching your face, hair, nose or body
  • After coughing, sneezing, eating, drinking, smoking or vaping
  • After raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs, and when switching from raw to ready-to-eat food
  • After dirty dishes, trash, money, your phone, door handles or chemicals
  • After touching animals, including service animals
  • When you change tasks

Sources: Food Code 2-301.14

How to wash

  1. Wet hands and forearms with warm running water (at least 100°F).
  2. Add soap.
  3. Scrub 10–15 seconds: palms, backs, between fingers, fingertips, under nails, and up past the wrists.
  4. Rinse under warm running water.
  5. Dry with a single-use paper towel, a clean cloth-towel roll, or an air dryer. Never an apron, a wiping cloth or your clothes.
  6. Use the paper towel to turn off the faucet.

The whole wash takes at least 20 seconds.

Sources: Food Code 2-301.12 · Food Code 6-301.12

Double handwash after the restroom

  • Wash once at the restroom sink. Use a nail brush on fingertips and under nails.
  • Wash again at the kitchen handwashing sink before touching food.
  • Washing twice removes far more norovirus and Shigella than washing once.

Sources: Food Code 2-301.14(B) · Source protocols: double handwash after the restroom (FDA recommends it in the Food Code annex)

Hand sinks are for hands only

  • Wash only at a handwashing sink.
  • Never wash hands in the dish sink, a food prep sink, a mop sink, or a drink cooler.
  • Never dump drinks, rinse utensils or fill pitchers at the hand sink.
  • Keep it clear: nothing stored in it or blocking it.
  • Keep it stocked with soap, paper towels and a trash can.

Sources: Food Code 2-301.15 · Food Code 5-205.11 · Food Code 6-301.11

Soap and hand sanitizer

  • Plain soap is enough. Pump soap is best at shared sinks.
  • Never use dish soap, degreaser or sanitizer solution as hand soap.
  • Hand sanitizer goes only on hands you already washed. It never replaces washing.
  • Use a store-bought sanitizer, not a homemade mix. If the label doesn't say it's safe for food contact, let it dry and put on gloves before touching food.
  • Sanitizer works poorly against norovirus and doesn't work on dirty or greasy hands.

Sources: Food Code 2-301.16 · Food Code 6-301.11

The rules behind it

  • Handwashing. Wash hands and forearms 20 seconds at a handwashing sink only; double wash after the restroom; sanitizer never replaces washing. Food Code 2-301.12, 2-301.14, 2-301.15, 2-301.16; R392-102-14(4)–(8)
  • Handwashing and 3-compartment sinks on the truck. At least one hand sink with hot and cold water, soap, towels and a sign, used only for hands. A 3-compartment sink with enough water to fill it without running out for handwashing. Sanitizer test kit on board. R392-102-6(13)–(14), R392-102-8(17), R392-102-14(5)–(7) · source