People who prepare and handle food in restaurants, schools, cruise ships, day care centers, nursing homes and other public places where people tend to crowd in confined spaces are the leading cause of norovirus outbreaks, according to the CDC.
This being said, families who go out to eat really don’t know if anyone handling their food is sick with a little “stomach bug,” and if they are ill, families don’t know if the sick employee properly washed his or her hands after using the toilet. This is what happened with Chipotle Mexican Grill, as reported in Digital Journal.
However, food safety protocols should also be practiced at home, and it is a matter of using common sense and good hygiene practices. It is important to remember that when someone is sickened by the norovirus, their vomit and stool contains virus particles, and the virus can remain in one;s stool for up to two weeks.
So let’s talk about good hygiene practices that should be followed when someone is sick with a stomach virus, or for that matter, any illness that is contagious, like the yearly flu virus that hits us every year, strep throat and a myriad of other illnesses.
Make hand-washing a regular part of family hygiene
1. Wash your hands carefully with soap and water every time you use the toilet or change the baby’s diaper.
2. Learn to sing one stanza of “Happy Birthday” while washing your hands. It comes out to the right amount of time required to get hands clean. (You can sing to yourself if you so desire).
3. Always wash your hands before eating, handling dishes and silverware when setting the table, and preparing food.
4. A note on alcohol-based hand sanitizers: They can be used in addition to hand-washing. Sanitizers do not take the place of soap and water.
Cleanliness in the kitchen
1. Please be aware that norovirus is a very temperature resistant bug. They can survive temperatures as high as 140°F and quick steaming processes that are often used for cooking shellfish.
2. Wash all fruits and vegetables before preparing them. And never, never cut produce on the same cutting board you have used to cut raw meat.
3. Wash cutting boards and knives with hot soapy water in between the cutting up of different products.
4. Food that might be contaminated with norovirus should be thrown out.
5. Keep sick infants, children and adults out of the kitchen while you are preparing food. This is because the norovirus and for that matter, many other viruses are also spread in an aerosol, from vomiting.
If you are sick, don’t prepare food for others
1. Don’t provide food or health care to others if you are sick, and for at least two days after you are well.
2. This one food safety protocol should be applied to sick employees in restaurants, schools and other facilities where people could get exposed to the norovirus.
Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces
1. After throwing up or having diarrhea, surfaces must be cleaned thoroughly with a disinfectant. If using a store-bought sanitizing agent, make sure it is effective against the norovirus.
2. This is old-school to some people, but the use of a 1:10 dilution of warm water and chlorine bleach is still one of the best ways to sanitize surfaces. Use one part bleach to nine parts water.
3. Wash contaminated clothing and bed linens thoroughly but handle them carefully to avoid spreading the virus in the air.
4. Wear disposable gloves if you have them. And again, wash your hands with soap and water.
5. Wash the contaminated items with detergent at the maximum available cycle length then machine dry them.
A final thought: We can cut down on the spread of food-borne illnesses, and not just the norovirus. Practice good hygiene by washing your hands after using the bathroom, and before handling any foods.
