Both Handwashing and Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer Reduce Soil and Microbial Contamination on Farmworker Hands During Harvest - But Produce Type Matters.

This study's goal was to determine if produce commodity influences the ability of handwashing with soap and water or Two-Step ABHS interventions to reduce soil and bacteria on farmworker hands. Farmworkers (n = 326) harvested produce for 30-90 minutes before engaging in handwashing (cantaloupe, jalapeño, and tomato), Two-Step ABHS (jalapeño and cantaloupe), or no hand hygiene. Hands were rinsed to measure amounts of soil (absorbance at 600 nm) and indicator bacteria (coliforms, Enterococccus, generic Escherichia coli, and Bacteroidales universal [AllBac] and human-specific [BFD] 16S rDNA markers). Without hand hygiene, bacterial concentrations (0.88 to 5.1 log10 CFU/hand) on hands significantly differed by the produce commodity harvested. Moderate significant correlations (ρ = -0.41 to 0.56) between soil load and bacterial concentrations were observed. There were significant produce-commodity specific differences in the ability of handwashing and Two-Step ABHS interventions to reduce soil (P < 0.0001), coliforms (P = 0.002), and Enterococcus (P = 0.003), but not the Bacteroidales markers AllBac (P = 0.4) or BFD (P = 0.3). Contamination was more difficult to remove from cantaloupe farmworker hands. Overall, we found that a Two-Step ABHS intervention was similar to handwashing with soap and water at reducing bacteria on farmworker hands. In sum, produce commodity type should be considered when developing hand hygiene interventions on farms.IMPORTANCE This study demonstrat...
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research