Bidirectional Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium transfer between bare/glove hands and green bell pepper and its interruption

Abstract

The aim of this study was to quantify the amount of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium transferred from volunteers' hands (bare or gloved) to green bell peppers and vice versa; and to assess the effectiveness of hand hygiene techniques. The highest and lowest percentages of bacterial transfer were achieve from green bell peppers to gloved hands (46.56%) and from bare hands to green bell peppers (0.21%), respectively. The highest and lowest Log10 reductions of S. Typhimurium were achieved by the combination of hand washing and alcohol-based gel (4.38 Log10) and iodine solution (2.08 Log10), respectively. This study provides important information concerning the transfer's efficiency of S. Typhimurium from hands to fresh produce and from fresh produce to hands. The study also showed that gloved hands, could be a mean of transfer of S. Typhimurium between green peppers and hands, and the best hand hygiene technique was the combination of hand washing and alcohol-based gel.