Restaurant touchscreen technology

[wvjules]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...are-not-contaminated-with-poop/?noredirect=on

 

[bcla]

Yes but some bacteria like C. diff are sporulated and difficult to kill even with the benzethonium chloride. Manual washing helps to physically remove them so the wipes are better than the gels or foams in any case. Like you said, I wouldn’t trust the effectiveness of wipes left out and open to the public like that. I’m not really concerned though because I practice good hand hygiene

Sure. However, they don't exactly make it easy to avoid contaminating ones hands on the way out. You go to the bathroom, which itself has all that stuff floating around and on various surfaces. Then you might have a faucet handle. Even if it's a proximity sensor in the faucet, and an auto-start air dryer, there's the door handle on the way out.

Still - the best I can hope for is risk reduction. And the human body still is pretty good at fighting off all these nasties.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

It's cute how everyone is freaking out about the touchscreen but nobody considers the chairs, tables, counters, door handles, money, their phones, their keys, the food, the air around... The napkin and ketchup dispensers, the self-service fountain...

Nobody is avoiding any of this anywhere public.

Sensationalist stories meant to drive traffic to the story/comments to get ad revenue.

What is really cute is that you believe that people don't consider everything else.

My keys, my phone and my keyboard are clean. I clean the first two every day. My keyboard, at least once a day, often 2 or 3 times.

I rarely open a door with my hand/fingers. I use a straw so that my mouth or anything going into my body comes in contact with fountain drink machine parts. I could go on.

So, yes, I am concerned about all of this. This is just one more thing that I have to be concerned about.

 

[EscalatorKid]

What is really cute is that you believe that people don't consider everything else.

My keys, my phone and my keyboard are clean. I clean the first two every day. My keyboard, at least once a day, often 2 or 3 times.

I rarely open a door with my hand/fingers. I use a straw so that my mouth or anything going into my body comes in contact with fountain drink machine parts. I could go on.

So, yes, I am concerned about all of this. This is just one more thing that I have to be concerned about.

I never said I didn't believe people considered other possibilities.
Most people don't consider everything else. Some may, but most don't bother. Just look around you when you go in public. How many people cough or sneeze in their hands and then touch the communal paper-wrapped straws or the individual straw dispenser (or lids, or napkins, or sauce packets) and then you grab yours unknowingly? How about the sneeze droplets floating through the air? How do you propose to control that?

Many fountain dispensers that your drink touches on it's way to your cup as well as ice machines are also contaminated with mold or bacteria... Not all, but many. Lots of machines are only cleaned as far as you can see and the internal parts never see the light of day until there's a blockage.

You can clean your stuff as much as you want, but total avoidance is improbable. It is not a sterile environment, even if it's convenient or comforting to believe.

That's why this hysteria over touchscreens is asinine when you look at literally every other surface or item in the restaurant.

 

[EscalatorKid]

It's only "cute" until you or your family has had a serious food-borne illness yourselves.

See my above reply. I've had food poisoning. It wasn't because of a touchscreen, either. Cross-contamination of poorly cooked, improperly temped food caused it.

You can't control every little thing in that restaurant and panicking over a touchscreen is pointless when every single surface and item and even the ambient air is contaminated with a plethora of germs.

If you are truly scared and factoring in all of that (and that's the Royal You, not you personally), then you're not going out in public anywhere, let alone McDonald's.

 

[bcla]

See my above reply. I've had food poisoning. It wasn't because of a touchscreen, either. Cross-contamination of poorly cooked, improperly temped food caused it.

Sure. Food poisoning is the remnant of microbial activity. I could actively take in bacteria that produce botulism toxin and wouldn't get sick from it, but the toxin could kill in high enough quantities. Washing my hands isn't likely to do anything to reduce food poisoning of food I'm actively eating.

 

[EscalatorKid]

Sure. Food poisoning is the remnant of microbial activity. I could actively take in bacteria that produce botulism toxin and wouldn't get sick from it, but the toxin could kill in high enough quantities. Washing my hands isn't likely to do anything to reduce food poisoning of food I'm actively eating.

So in keeping with the topic... How is the touchscreen responsible for the food as other posters and media stories seem to imply?

 

[bcla]

So in keeping with the topic... How is the touchscreen responsible for the food as other posters and media stories seem to imply?

It's not of course. Or at least not responsible for most illnesses people get from consuming food.

There might be some pathogens transmitted by hands, but it's not that big a deal. We're taking bacteria from the environment all the time and generally don't get sick from it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Maybe we should check with the FDA to figure out why they ban cell phones from kitchens.

Or maybe they're just being silly, too.

 

[bcla]

Maybe we should check with the FDA to figure out why they ban cell phones from kitchens.

Or maybe they're just being silly, too.

Or maybe the FDA doesn't have the authority to ban anything from a restaurant? Because all they have is a model food code that provides recommendations for other agencies.

https://www.fda.gov/food/GuidanceRegulation/retailfoodprotection/foodcode/default.htm
The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publishes the Food Code, a model that assists food control jurisdictions at all levels of government by providing them with a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment of the industry (restaurants and grocery stores and institutions such as nursing homes). Local, state, tribal, and federal regulators use the FDA Food Code as a model to develop or update their own food safety rules and to be consistent with national food regulatory policy.​

You can download the latest version of the FDA Food Code here:

https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/ucm595139.htm

I tried searching for anything mentioning phones, devices, etc. All I could find was that their model code says that jewelry should not be worn on the hands/arms, with the exception of a plain ring such as a wedding band. There's a lot about washing hands and using antimicrobials after contact with anything that might be contaminated. There is nothing in there that specifically mentions any electronic devices.

In California, the state has a uniform retail food code, and it's up to local governments to enforce it.

https://www.acgov.org/aceh/food/CaliforniaRetailFoodCode2018.pdf

 

[Kitty 34]

My parents have told us family members those bacterial wipes actually can kill the "good " bacteria, that are needed to help ward off "bad" bacteria. They've been telling us this every since they came out with all this antibacterial stuff. Now a good soap and warm/hot water can do the trick, they say. But hey, they're only 86 and 88.

Me, with my lung disease and loving to go to the casino where I'm sure there's not a germ in the place just follow my parents advice, I wash my hands a lot. Now as far as the touch screen which I now have to use at the hospital when I register for my weekly infusions.....I do use my knuckles. And then go play BJ.

 

[wenrob]

Sure. However, they don't exactly make it easy to avoid contaminating ones hands on the way out. You go to the bathroom, which itself has all that stuff floating around and on various surfaces. Then you might have a faucet handle. Even if it's a proximity sensor in the faucet, and an auto-start air dryer, there's the door handle on the way out.

Still - the best I can hope for is risk reduction. And the human body still is pretty good at fighting off all these nasties.

This is what elbows are for. Or in the case of round knobs, open with paper towel, hold door open with foot or shoulder, toss paper towel. Worse case, the bottom of a shirt or a sleeve works well. The hospital my dad was in before he passed had sensors you waved your hand in front of.

I’m in the camp of touch screens not being any worse than anything else. I have never encountered a “moist” touchscreen not even sure where that assertion comes from. Lots of food industry people in my circle including my DD, phones aren’t banned in the kitchens. Long nails, dangling earrings and anything but the simplest rings are. Hair needs to be up and caps/hats/toques need to be worn.

I know you can’t avoid all cooties but I do go out of my way to not touch something everyone else has touched if I can help it. I avoid railings and doorknobs like the plague and use the back of my hand, shoulder, elbow or a knuckle when there are things I have to touch. I always use wipes in situations where they’re provided, avoid touching my face and wash my hands with good old fashioned soap and water frequently. I have two kids in middle school and one in college (I swear college is worse than grade school) that bring home a plethora of crap and *knock wood* manage to keep from catching it myself about 85% of the time.

TL;DR: Touchscreens aren’t the issue, people who don’t wash their hands are. Wash your hands.

 

[bcla]

This is what elbows are for. Or in the case of round knobs, open with paper towel, hold door open with foot or shoulder, toss paper towel. Worse case, the bottom of a shirt or a sleeve works well. The hospital my dad was in before he passed had sensors you waved your hand in front of.

I've been to some places (especially airports) where there is no door. Just kind of a snaking path inside.

 

[gotomu212]

Yes, they do. (See the latest FDA Food Code below.) Cell phones are no longer allowed in kitchens or around food because of their germ content, and the other things you mention all fall under routine sanitation.

https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/UCM595140.pdf

In addition to the FDA, restaurants are also subject to local and state health department rules.


As mentioned above, they are when it comes to being around food.

I checked with several friends that work in kitchens, including a local “celebrity chef”, none of them have banned cell phones in the kitchens they work in. They said this wasn’t a local requirement. Just like everything they have rules about washing hands after they touch things and most nights they’re so slammed there’s no time to be on their phones, but it doesn’t sound like phones are actually nationally banned.

 

[wenrob]

I've been to some places (especially airports) where there is no door. Just kind of a snaking path inside.

They’re set up in DCA that way.

 

[wenrob]

You could always carry one of these with you:
https://www.amazon.com/GERMISE-Ligh...06WWMFT1L/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[Floridaman999]

It's probably where you've eaten at. I've encountered both the table top versions (like at Chili's, Red Robin, etc) and the large ones like at McDonald's where you ordered off of the kiosk and then go to the counter.

I generally eat at more of the mom and pop type places and really don't eat at many chains. That might be why I haven't seen it as well. I'll have to keep my eye out for it just to see if I've been missing all the fun.