Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Tracking Microbial Contamination in Retail Environments Using Fluorescent Powder - A Retail Delicatessen Environment Example
Published on: March 5, 2014
Skin protection in the food industry
A Bauer1, D Kelterer, R Bartsch
1Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
In food occupations, like in many other skin risk occupations, the regular use of personal protection equipment, i.e. of skin protection ointments and protective gloves, is recommended as well as regular skin care for the prevention of occupational hand dermatitis. We investigated the uptake and maintenance of different prevention strategies (instructions for skin protection and skin care, prevocational skin hardening with UV light) in food occupations and their efficacy in the primary prevention of vocationally caused hand dermatitis. We could show that the acceptance and regular use of skin protection and care measures could be significantly increased by theoretical and practical instructions in food industry trainees. The highest acceptance was seen with skin protection ointment (100%) and skin care (90%). Protective gloves (43.3%) were used to a lesser extent. The hand dermatitis point prevalence in the groups after 6 months was 13.3% (skin protection), 19.4% (UV hardening) and 29.1% (controls). These clinical trends were supported by statistically significant differences in the basal TEWL values. Adequate skin protection and regular skin care seem to be promising for the prevention of occupationally caused hand dermatitis. The experimental approach using UV hardening prevocationally did not fulfil the expectations.
Related Concept Videos
Sources of Food Contamination
Pasteurization and Food Preservation
Microorganisms in Agriculture and Food industry
Methods of Controlling Food Spoilage
Personal Protective Equipment
Good Manufacturing Practices

