The Chef With a Bandaged Hand
At 11:30 a sous-chef in a busy Dubai restaurant cuts his left index finger while chopping parsley. He rinses it under the tap, wraps it in a blue plaster from the first-aid box, and returns to the same board to finish the parsley and then to slice cooked chicken for a cold salad. At 12:10 he uses the same unwashed gloved hand to answer his phone, then continues plating. The restaurant has a handwash sink 4 metres away, but it is blocked by a stack of delivery boxes. The sous-chef is wearing a wedding ring and a wristwatch. No one has inspected the plaster. At 15:00 a colleague notices the plaster is missing from the first-aid box count and the parsley is already on the buffet.
1. Identify every hand-hygiene and personal-hygiene breach in this scenario and rank them by risk.
Read the worked answer
High risk:
- No handwashing after the cut and after touching the phone. The phone is a high-touch fomite; transferring it to ready-to-eat (RTE) chicken is a direct contamination route.
- Blue plaster not checked or replaced. A plaster must be brightly coloured, waterproof and detectable; the missing-plaster count suggests it may have fallen into food - a physical hazard. The wound must be covered with a waterproof dressing plus a detectable plaster.
- Blocked handwash sink. A blocked sink means handwashing is not practicable, which is a premises failure, not just a personal one.
Medium risk: 4. Returning to the same board without cleaning and sanitising after a cut - blood is a contamination source. 5. Jewellery (ring and watch) worn during food handling - harbours bacteria and can fall into food.
Lower but still non-compliant: 6. No documented inspection of the dressing at the start of shift.
Ranking rationale: Risk is driven by (a) proximity to RTE food, (b) whether a kill step follows, and (c) whether the hazard is biological or physical. The phone-to-RTE-chicken route and the missing plaster are the most serious.
2. What should have happened from the moment of the cut to the point the parsley reached the buffet? Give a step-by-step corrective sequence.
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- Stop work and move away from food.
- Wash hands with soap and warm water, then dry.
- Apply a waterproof, brightly coloured, detectable plaster; if the cut is deep or weeping, cover with a finger stall and then a detectable plaster, or redeploy to non-food duties.
- Remove jewellery (ring, watch) before food handling - or cover the ring with a plaster if removal is not possible.
- Clean and sanitise the board and knife before any further use, or use a fresh colour-coded board.
- Wash hands before returning to food, and again after touching the phone.
- Do not handle RTE food with a gloved hand that has touched a phone - gloves are not a substitute for handwashing.
- Supervisor checks the dressing at the start of each shift and records it.
- Clear the handwash sink so it is accessible at all times, stocked with soap and paper towels.
- Quarantine the parsley until the plaster is accounted for; if it cannot be found, treat the batch as contaminated and discard.
3. The restaurant argues the gloved hand makes the phone contact acceptable. Explain why this is wrong and what the correct glove policy is.
Read the worked answer
Gloves are not a barrier that resets hygiene. A glove worn while answering a phone becomes contaminated on its outer surface, and that contamination transfers directly to the RTE chicken. Gloves can even increase risk because wearers feel protected and wash less.
Correct glove policy:
- Wash hands before donning gloves and after removing them.
- Change gloves when moving between raw and RTE food, after touching the face, phone, door handles or bins, and at least every 4 hours or when torn.
- Never wear gloves outside the food area (e.g. to the phone, toilet or store room).
- Use gloves only as an additional control for RTE handling, not as a replacement for handwashing.
Underlying principle: The phone is a fomite. The control is to not touch the phone with food-handling hands - ideally have a colleague handle calls, or sanitise the phone and wash hands before resuming.