[Sca-cooks] Re: Kitchen vs personal cleanliness

[Mary Denise Smith]

One of the Denver TV stations did an e. coli "expose'" the other night.
They somehow conned a restaurant (unnamed) into letting them take
samples from under the nails of their kitchen staff and test the
scrapings for whatever might be there. Then the staff was instructed to
go about their business as usual, with a TV cameraman in the kitchen
(where? What rafter did they hang him from?). The point of the camera
was to note how many times and how thoroughly the staff washed their
hands. I suppose they were also looking for meat handling safety.

The upshot was that the folks with nails long enough to trap any kind of
gunk had e.coli in the scrapings, and that routine washing did not
remove it. Neither did washing/scrubbing with a brush. The report was
ESPECIALLY critical of those commercial kitchen workers with fashionably
long/artificial nails.

The TV report was not hysterical - unlike most TV expose's. Its tone was
pointing out something that the HOME cook should know about.

MD/Marged
who rarely eats in restaurants anyway