It’s surprisingly easy for someone to accidentally cross-contaminate from one surface to another. Fortunately, you can also prevent cross-contamination with some education, careful hygiene practices, and a little help from our commercial building cleaning services in Phoenix, Arizona. At JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting in Phoenix, our primary objective involves helping local businesses maintain healthy, productive environments for staff and customers.
However, cross-contamination can threaten your workplace’s health and safety without warning. Keeping yourself, staff members, and customers informed while maintaining a tidy, sanitary building is among the most effective ways to prevent it. Let’s explore why cross-contamination happens and how to avoid it below.
What Causes Cross-Contamination?
First and foremost, what causes cross-contamination? Cross-contamination refers to spreading germs from one place to another. For example, you might prepare a raw chicken thigh for a patron’s meal at your restaurant.
Ideally, chefs have designated counter areas to work with raw meat so they don’t cross-contaminate surfaces for vegetable and salad prep. But you’re new and haven’t learned about this issue, so you cut the thigh near the salad station. The meat transfers harmful bacteria, like salmonella, to the station, and unwitting line cooks serve cross-contaminated starter salads to several other tables.
Several customers become severely ill within the next two days as a result. Now, this is among the more egregious examples. Cross-contamination can happen via other means, too:
- Improper food storage
- Lack of or poor handwashing protocols
- Lack of thorough sanitation on food prep or restroom surfaces
- Poor sanitization of frequently used electronics and surfaces
While many focus on cross-contamination in healthcare, food service, and similar businesses, any commercial industry can face this silent threat. You’re less likely to cross-contaminate when you know where germs most often lurk and how to circumvent their spread.
How Does Cross Contamination Occur?
Now that you know the most common vehicles for germ spread, how does cross-contamination occur in the average workplace? We explored a scenario involving raw meat in a restaurant above. Let’s look at some other scenarios that might make your workplace unhealthier or less safe.
Food Preparation Areas
Food prep occurs in most modern workplaces, not just restaurants. If you have a break room in your commercial building, you could face cross-contamination in food safety practices. If a staff member uses the restroom but doesn’t wash their hands properly, they could contaminate the counters, tables, refrigerator handle, and other frequently touched surfaces in this space.
As other staff members take lunch breaks, they’ll accidentally contact and spread these germs to their food and other surfaces. Contamination might also occur in any unmaintained or cleaned appliances like coffee makers, refrigerators, and microwaves.
Workplaces and Public Spaces
Cross-contamination in the workplace happens beyond food prep or eating areas, too. Restrooms, lobbies, and shared offices are often hubs of activity. People come and go from these places daily.
If a sick customer arrives, coughing and sneezing with each step, they may not wash or sanitize their hands every time they cough and can spread their contagious cold to other surfaces. If the staff members don’t consistently sanitize desk surfaces or electronics, they could catch and spread the cold to others.
Cleaning Practices and Tools
Cross-contamination can happen anywhere at any time. What can you do to curb the spread’s frequency and quickness? Implement the following cleaning tips to prevent cross-contamination in your workplace:
- Place hand sanitizer in strategic areas, like entrances, exits, lobbies, and waiting rooms. Remember to refill the dispensers regularly.
- Assign your staff members with individual devices when possible so they don’t cross-contaminate their bacteria or viruses.
- Encourage the use of face masks, especially for public-facing employees who frequently interact with customers.
- Put up signs in restrooms, break rooms, and common areas to remind everyone to wash their hands and use sanitizer.
- Practice social distancing by keeping a minimum of six feet of space between two people.
- Encourage staff to take time off when they feel ill or show symptoms of sickness.
You can also embrace remote work positions for those who don’t need to stay in the office to complete their to-dos. You might also enable sick staff members who still want to work to perform some duties remotely if possible.
What Can Cross Contamination Lead To?
Could anything bad happen if you don’t practice the above tips? What can cross-contamination lead to in the workplace? When someone cross-contaminates foodborne illnesses or personal contagion to another person, it impacts multiple facets of your Phoenix business.
First, it immediately harms workplace productivity. Your staff members will drop like flies, calling out of work as the virus or bacteria spreads to them. Their families could also become sick, resulting in some employees staying home from work to care for children.
Second, it may harm your business’s reputation, especially if your services involve food preparation or healthcare. Customers expect companies within these industries to take extra precautions to prevent contagious germs from spreading. Should a staff member cross-contaminate foodborne or infectious microbes to an unsuspecting patron, your profits and community standing could take a blow.
Is Cross-Contamination Difficult to Prevent? Why or Why Not?
So, is cross-contamination difficult to prevent? Why or why not? While you can curb cross-contamination, you can’t always stop it. However, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the saying goes. But even prevention isn’t always that simple.
Challenges in Prevention
One of the primary prevention obstacles is managing individual behaviors. Many cross-contamination risks originate from what a person does in private. You can oversee and correct habits in shared areas, but you can’t monitor restrooms or break rooms at all times.
Effective Prevention Strategies
You can keep germs from spreading by implementing these cross-contamination cleaning techniques as required checklists for staff members to complete:
- Sanitizing personal and shared devices daily.
- Rotating employee responsibilities, like wiping down surfaces, mopping floors, or checking restrooms.
- Asking symptomatic staff members to go home for the day or wear masks and gloves.
Cross Contamination Can Happen as a Result Of:
Cross-contamination can happen due to several occurrences, many of which begin at home or with personal habits. Let’s review why it occurs in the workplace.
Poor Hygiene Practices
One staff member or customer might cross-contaminate with another person or surface because:
- They don’t wash their hands after using the restroom, sneezing, or coughing.
- They travel while sick and symptomatic.
- They don’t cover their faces and noses when they sneeze or cough.
Improper Cleaning Techniques
Cross-contamination might also happen because of:
- Improper food handling and management.
- Lack of surface and device sanitization.
- No (or inconvenient) access to cleaning or sanitizing products.
JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting Helps Reduce Cross Contamination in Workplaces
“I need a professional cleaning service near me to curb cross-contamination!” JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting in Phoenix, Arizona, has a solution. Curb the potential for staff and customers to cross-contaminate in your workplace. Call 602-438-1000 to connect with one of our franchisees.