Hand care for food processing workers

01 · The line

Wash, sanitize, glove, repeat

On a processing line, clean hands are part of the product. You wash at the trough sink, you sanitize at the station, you pull on nitrile, latex or vinyl gloves, and you do it all again after every break, every trip off the floor and every change of task.

Every step keeps the food safe. Together, over a full shift, they’re hard on the hands doing them.

In the FDA Food Code, a hand antiseptic goes only on hands that have already been washed. Sanitizer is a second step, not a stand-in for the sink.FDA Food Code, 2-301 (Hands and Arms)

02 · The barrier

Your barrier is a brick wall

• Skin cells
• Oils and lipids
• Water

The outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum, is made of dead skin cells held together by natural oils and lipids. Picture bricks and mortar. The mortar holds moisture in and keeps irritants out.

Frequent washing strips those oils. Gloves worn all shift trap sweat against the skin and rub it raw. Chapping, flaking and sensitivity follow, and sore hands make every wash harder to keep up with.

03 · What develops

Irritant contact dermatitis

• Water escaping
• Irritants

Keep exposing skin to water, cleaners and the inside of a glove and the barrier breaks down. That’s irritant contact dermatitis. It starts as redness, itching and dryness and can progress to cracking and blistering.

NIOSH counts skin disease among the most common work-related illnesses, and wet work, with hands wet or gloved for long stretches, is one of its main causes.

There’s a second type, allergic contact dermatitis, where skin becomes sensitized to something it touches, including some glove materials. If your hands won’t heal, get them looked at.

04 · Why we built it

Built to sit next to the food

Anything on your hands can end up on the product. Most drugstore lotions carry mineral oils, silicones or lanolin that can end up on the line and on your gloves. So we built a line where every product has its NSF category on file and leaves nothing behind.

Both I.C. Lotions and the Hand Sanitizing Cream are dermatologist tested: a 50-subject patch test with zero reactions.ALS / BioScreen, FDA-registered lab, Study 22-522A (2022)

05 · On the line

When to use what

1. 1
   Start of shiftWash with I.C. Antibacterial Hand Cleaner (E2). Then, if your plan calls for it, I.C. sanitizer (E3) on the washed hands, rubbed in until dry. Then glove.
2. 2
   Every new taskGloves off, wash, sanitize, fresh gloves. Same order every time.
3. 3
   Break timeI.C. Lotion (E4) where your food safety plan allows it. Let it dry, then wash and glove before you go back on the floor.
4. 4
   End of shiftAfter your last wash, lotion once more before you head home.

Follow your plant’s food safety plan and GMPs, and use the sanitizers as directed on their labels.