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Fast-food giant McDonald's is reviewing its food-handling procedures after a hepatitis A scare and claims by staff that workers aren't washing their hands as often as they should.
Health authorities were on high alert yesterday for a possible outbreak of infectious hepatitis A after a sick McDonald's worker handled food at one of Auckland's busiest restaurants.
The worker may have exposed hundreds of customers to the virus during an evening shift at the Greenlane restaurant just over a fortnight ago. He has been stood down but told he is welcome to return to work once he gets the all-clear.
No cases have been linked with the McDonald's worker, but public health officials have warned that anyone who ate at the restaurant on Friday, December 15, from 7pm to 2am, is at risk and should contact their doctor if they show any symptoms. The virus has a two-week incubation period.
The Auckland Regional Health Service said there was no reason to think McDonald's food-handling procedures had contributed to the health scare.
Five people have called a hotline set up for customers concerned they may have contracted the virus.
The scare has re-ignited the debate over whether fast-food staff should wear gloves. At McDonald's, only staff who handle raw meat have to wear them.
Auckland Medical Officer of Health Dr Greg Simmons and Otago University senior food science lecturer Dr David Everett both say gloves act as a barrier to germs and decrease the chances of hepatitis A being spread.
However, McDonald's is defending its food-handing practices, saying staff have to wash their hands every 20 to 30 minutes. But McDonald's workers spoken to yesterday by the Herald on Sunday said this seldom happened.
"We're being made to wash our hands every half an hour for 20 seconds today," said one employee. "But in all honesty, this wasn't going on as much as it should." Another admitted "it's a little unusual that we don't wear gloves".
When the Herald on Sunday visited Greenlane McDonald's yesterday there was little evidence of staff regularly washing their hands.
One worker was seen wiping her nose and then handling burger buns and lettuce. On other occasions, workers handling money also handled french fries.
McDonald's spokesman Mark Hawthorne said there were arguments for and against using gloves, and that was why the company was reviewing its food-handling procedures. If the review suggested McDonald's should bring in gloves for its 6000 New Zealand workers, that would be introduced within three to six months.
He said its research had shown that gloves did not establish an absolute barrier to contamination and in some cases could lead to a false sense of good hygiene.
Wearing gloves is not essential under New Zealand law, but hand washing is. The Food Hygiene Regulations 1974 specify hand washing as the main method of reducing the transfer of germs from hands to food. Food handlers also have to thoroughly wash their hands, even if they wear gloves.
The Food Safety Authority said improper glove use could be just as unhygienic as inadequate hand washing, as most gloves used for food preparation were permeable, allowing germs from dirty hands to escape through the gloves on to food. And glove wearers who could not feel food scraps or juice on their hands might wash their hands less frequently.
However, Everett said, fast-food workers rarely stuck to the rules about frequent hand washing.
Simmons said wearing gloves while handling food decreased the chances of hepatitis A being spread, as gloves acted as an extra layer of protection if faecal matter stuck to hands even after washing and drying.
"So in this situation, if you wore gloves for everything ... you could argue that gloves could have made a difference," he said.
However, he did not advocate a blanket policy for fast-food workers to wear gloves. Once people were wearing them, they thought they were bulletproof, he said.
Of all the fast-food chains in New Zealand, only Wendy's and Subway workers wear gloves on their food preparation line.
While there was no ongoing risk of hepatitis A at McDonald's Greenlane, Hawthorne said with 6000 workers in New Zealand there were always going to be slip-ups, but the company believed most staff followed its food-handling procedures.
McDonald's Greenlane customers spoken to yesterday were in favour of gloves for staff handling food. Regular customer Danny Dalauidao said his concern was that cashiers handling money were also handling food.
The Greenlane case is not the first time McDonald's has been in trouble over hepatitis A. In 2002 a Wisconsin restaurant was closed temporarily after a 19-year-old staff member was hospitalised because of the virus.
HEPATITIS A: THE FACTS
How it spreads: The disease is usually spread by consuming food or drink handled by someone infected with the disease.
Signs and symptoms: Fatigue, jaundice, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, fever, diarrhoea and dark urine.
Long-term effects: Hepatitis A symptoms may appear two to seven weeks after exposure to the infected source, but usually occur about four weeks after exposure. There are no chronic long-term effects from the disease, but around 15 per cent of people infected will have prolonged or relapsing symptoms over a 6 to 9 month period.
Prevention: The single most effective way to prevent the spread of the hepatitis A virus is careful hand washing after using the toilet. After a person recovers from hepatitis A, they are immune to it for life and do not continue to carry the virus.
Treatment: There are no special medicines or antibiotics that are used to treat people once the symptoms of hepatitis A have appeared. Although symptoms might take months to disappear completely, bed rest and plenty of fluids are all that are generally needed for recovery.
