I used to work in the food industry and I'm an absolute germ freak. I've watched so many people wash their hands at work and I've noticed that almost no one washes their hands properly. If you don't wash your hands properly, you can still get others sick!! Some people put soap on their hands without wetting them first and rub the soap around on their hands like lotion and then rinse it off. WRONG!!! I've seen people wet their hands, apply soap and then put their hands directly into the water again to rinse them off. WRONG!!! I've seen people wash for only a few seconds. WRONG!!!

Has anyone even read proper hand washing instructions? Especially if you handle with food? Even more so if you work in a restaurant? It boggles my mind how many people don't know how to do something so vital for not only your health, but everyone's health that you come in contact with.

1. Wet your hands with warm water.

2. Apply soap.

3. Work soap into a foamy lather.

4. Rub hands together for 20 SECONDS (sing the ABC's or happy birthday twice), getting between fingers, under your nails and both sides of your hands!

5. Thoroughly rinse your hands.

6. Dry hands, preferably with a single use paper towel.

7. Turn faucet off with paper towel.

That's the proper way. How many people actually follow that? Not many. I did an experiment with my son about a year ago. I had ordered some petri dishes and prepared them as per the instructions. I swabbed both my hands and my husband's hands and rubbed it on two separate dishes. I washed my hands the proper way, swabbed them, and rubbed it on another dish. My husband washed his hands his way (example two above), swabbed his hands and rubbed it on a dish. Then we waited for the bacteria to grow. Both before washing petri dishes grew disgusting amounts of bacteria and fungus. That's normal. Our hands were dirty. But the results of our washed hands were very telling. My dish had one orange cluster and one white cluster of growth. My husbands dish was unbelievable. He had at least 10 clusters of growth of many different colors. He thought his hands were clean. I did this experiment when I was trying to teach my son why we wash our hands and why we need to do it properly. He now knows how to do it and he hardly ever gets sick. I wish I could find the pictures I took of the petri dishes. It was very shocking! My point is, you need to wash your hands properly for EVERYONES sake. It's so important!!