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Been speaking to a couple of my customers who work on the food counters at Waitrose. They tell me that the company make them wash their own workwear, they are also told they must wash the clothing at 50 degrees.
My first thought on this was how do they know the worker washes the item at 50 degrees and not 30 degrees and secondly do domestic washing machines guarantee temperatures.
Any comments please.
TurboRe: Waitrose Workwear Hygiene?
1. They won’t know.
2. Why 50C?
3. How many machines do you see these days with a 50C wash?
4. The detergent used is probably of greater importance.
5. The loading will also have a huge bearing as in, if it’s not right.
6. If this is for hygiene purposes then no, it’s not guaranteed.
And that’s just off the top of my head.
I know that a lot of the NHS people have to wash their own now as well so I guess that they’re just trying to save some cash but the least that they could do is actually hand out proper guidance.
K.
Re: Waitrose Workwear Hygiene?
I used to work for a commercial washing machine company that had machines in nursing homes, hospitals etc. This was some 15 years ago and the legislation then was that wash temperatures should reach a minimum of 64 degrees (apparently nothing can live above this temperature so as to prevent the possibility of cross contamination i.e. bedding, towels etc.) and although the machines were programmed electrically they had to have an external thermometer (mechanical) that would confirm the inside wash temperature. Lets face it if you set a domestic machine on a 90 degree wash and press the economy button then on a majority of machine the temperature won’t be reached. This was the legalisation then but as you all know the goal posts can, over the years, get moved!
Re: Waitrose Workwear Hygiene?
Seems like Waitrose and the NHS and many other companies are cutting corners with Health and Safety on this one. You can give these workers the best guidance in the world as far as washing instructions go but as they are often on low wages many will probably wash at a low temperature to save money.
TurboRe: Waitrose Workwear Hygiene?
May write to Waitrose as a concerned customer to see what comes back. Any ideas for the letter welcome!
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