How Electric Hand Dryers Help to Improve Restaurant Hygiene

“I won't eat in restaurants with smelly, dirty bathrooms! They should let you see the bathrooms before sitting down to eat... Bathrooms are relatively easy to clean. Kitchens are not."

That's how blunt and direct the wildest, harshest, and brutally honest chef, television host and writer on the planet Anthony Bourdain expressed himself, in his book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly”, referring to restaurant bathrooms.

This quote is a statement of intent and a wake-up call for all those people in the restaurant world who believe that only the kitchen and dining room are part of their restaurant. On the contrary, bathrooms are also a fundamental part of the image that users form, as they may come to believe that the hygiene, tidiness and cleanliness of the bathroom are a mirror image of the state of the kitchen.

Bathrooms in a catering establishment represent personal hygiene away from home. And who doesn't like to feel that this aspect, too, has been cared for in the same way that it is cared for in one's own home?

But it is not only the customers themselves who judge the bathrooms. More and more culinary critics are assessing the state of the bathrooms when rating a restaurant. And, although there is no special recognition for this particular area of the business, it also influences the final assessment of the restaurant.

A public health issue

It is clear, therefore, that the bathroom, far from being purely decorative or a simple formality, is an important element in what has proved to be a key issue in recent times: public health, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is an international association, the World Toilet Organization which ensures the existence of safely managed bathrooms and monitors their condition to prove that a good toilet can save many lives. 

We should all inspect the state of the bathroom before sitting down to eat in a restaurant, just as chef Anthony Bourdain said, because we should not overlook the fact that chefs and servers also use them. This means that if they do not have the necessary means to conduct their personal hygiene effectively or do not carry it out correctly, cross-contamination will wreak havoc and will also cause us to eat their faecal matter.

For the promoter of World Toilet Day, the World Toilet Organization, "the bathroom is a key service and profit centre for restaurants and hotels". “If the toilets fail, the business is not viable. Many businesses are losing customers and therefore money because their bathrooms can't compete with those of other restaurants," it warns. For this reason, many entrepreneurs in the restaurant sector have already begun to address this, aware of the importance of good bathroom cleanliness and hygiene, but, nevertheless, there is still a long way to go and greater involvement of all is needed on this issue.

After the pandemic

The pandemic and the obsession with hygiene it has created are an opportunity to create a before and after on an issue as important as public toilets. According to the World Toilet Organization, which reports directly to the United Nations, it is very clear that "With COVID-19, the world is now much more aware of hygiene. We need to take advantage of this to get action from owners. We can motivate them to change if diners openly criticise those with dirty bathrooms and this causes them to lose sales. Then, owners will understand that having a clean, disinfected and tidy bathroom is a cost-effective service and will take the appropriate measures".

What is Mediclinics doing to help improve restaurant hygiene?

As specialists in the design and manufacture of electric hand dryers and bathroom accessories for public facilities, at Mediclinics S.A. we work tirelessly to make our state-of-the-art hand dryers help to make public bathrooms in general and those of a hotel or restaurant in particular, much more hygienic, clean, tidy and safe spaces, in line with the basic principles of the World Toilet Organization,

Our state-of-the-art electric hand dryers incorporate the following technological advances in hygiene and safety:

a)    “Touchless” or “Touch free” technology. This technology is a form of infrared-based electronic control that allows electric hand dryer users to turn it on and off without physically touching the dryer.  This avoids cross-contamination and therefore greatly minimises the risk of contracting diseases. In catering, cross-contamination is one of the main causes of food poisoning.

b)    Biocote® antimicrobial additive. Our flagship, the Dualflow Plus hand dryer, incorporates this technology as standard in all its models, using technology based on silver ions that prevent the proliferation of viruses, bacteria, mould and fungi on the surfaces of the hand dryer that could be touched by the user. The incorporation of this technology, as well as those described below, has earned this hand dryer HACCP certification, which helps organisations in the food industry identify food safety risks, avoid related hazards and comply with current regulations. This makes this hand dryer ideal for installing in a restaurant.

c)     HEPA filter media HEPA filters are a mechanical system for retaining volatile particles present in the air, and are generally made of fibreglass. These randomly arranged fibres are extremely fine and create a mesh-like structure that retains dust, pollen, dust mites, viruses, bacteria, smoke and, in general, any fine particle present in the bathroom air measuring less than 0.01 millimetre. These filters ensure that the air with which we dry our hands is clean and pure, so that drying our hands is completely hygienic and safe. In our post of 10 October 2020, “Are HEPA filters a safe solution for COVID-19?”, we spoke about this technology in depth.

d)    Ionizer (Ion Hygienic® technology). In our post of 21 March 2021, "HEPA filters and hand dryers, what else do we need?", we spoke about this technology and its benefits. Basically, we explained that an ionizer is an electrical device that generates millions of anions (negative electrical particles) that use electrostatic action to stick to the microscopic particles mentioned above (dust, pollen, dust mites, viruses, bacteria, smoke, etc.) which are positively charged, forming particles of higher density than air and that, under gravity, fall to the floor cleaning the air in the bathroom.

It is clear, therefore, that, like the dining area and kitchen, the bathrooms in any restaurant are vital for promoting hygiene and, at the same time, building customer loyalty. All the little touches that personalise them and make them more aesthetically pleasing and more functional but which also make them more hygienic, clean and tidy, will be beneficial for the opinions of users in general and critics in particular. And that is why at Mediclinics. we want to help all restaurateurs around the world improve the conditions of their bathrooms, because happy and well looked-after customers, as we already know, COME BACK!