Hand washing and disgust response to handling different food stimuli between two different cultures

•Foods perceived as more hazardous motivate individuals to wash their hands.•Disgust increases the probability of hand washing, but other motivational reasons exist.•Motivational reasons to wash hands differ among demographic factors and food types.•Disgust levels among food types are greater in women than men.

Increasing compliance with proper hand washing among consumers and foodservice workers during food handling and preparation is an effective strategy to minimize the spread of bacteria and disease. At home and in the food industry contributing factors and barriers exist that lead to low rates of compliance with proper hand hygiene. Recently, researchers have begun to emphasize the importance of internal motivational factors such as the emotion of disgust and how it affects hygiene behaviors. This study was designed to determine the influence of disgust and other motives on hand washing among participants when handling common foods in the foodservice industry, and if these responses are culturally dependent. A preliminary survey that showed differing levels of consumers' disgust among 21 foods commonly handled in the food industry was conducted. In the main part of the study, representatives from two cultures, Caucasian and Hispanic, were observed while they handled four common foods; apple, bread, chicken and fish. Results from this study showed that hand washing behavior was affected by the type of food being handled and the intensity of the emotion of disgust. Individuals tended to wash their hands more frequently for foods they perceived as more hazardous, and their motives to wash varied among variables of gender (self-protection for men, carryover effects for women), culture (self-protection for Caucasians, texture for Hispanics) and the type of food (self-protection for chicken, smell for fish). Additionally, as the feeling of disgust increased among individuals their probability to wash their hands also increased. Factors that did not show an influence on hand washing included the culture and gender of the participant, and whether they had past foodservice experience. These findings, in combination other studies, should be considered when designing motivation and training strategies to increase consumer or foodservice employee hand washing behaviors.