Handwashing procedure and hand sink checklist for a café or restaurant (free template)
Everyone knows to wash their hands. The trouble is the details: the barista who washes in the bar sink because the hand sink is behind milk crates, the cook who gloves up without washing, the sink with no towels at 1 pm on a Saturday.
This post turns the FDA Food Code's handwashing rules into a procedure, a when-to-wash chart, a hand sink checklist and a manager's observation log.
General information, not legal advice. Quotes are from the FDA Food Code 2022, checked against the 2026 edition. Your state or county adopts its own edition and may differ.
The procedure: 20 seconds, five steps
The Code says food employees "shall clean their hands and exposed portions of their arms, including surrogate prosthetic devices for hands or arms for at least 20 seconds, using a cleaning compound in a HANDWASHING SINK" (§2-301.12(A)), in this order (§2-301.12(B)):
Step | The Code's words | At the sink |
|---|---|---|
1 | "Rinse under clean, running warm water" | Wet hands and forearms |
2 | "Apply an amount of cleaning compound recommended by the cleaning compound manufacturer" | One pump of soap |
3 | "Rub together vigorously for at least 10 to 15 seconds", paying attention to "removing soil from underneath the fingernails" and "areas between the fingers" | Palms, backs, between fingers, nails, wrists |
4 | "Thoroughly rinse under clean, running warm water" | Fingertips down |
5 | "Immediately follow the cleaning procedure with thorough drying" | Paper towel, then use it to turn off a hand-operated tap |
On step 5: staff "may use disposable paper towels or similar clean barriers when touching surfaces such as manually operated faucet handles on a HANDWASHING SINK or the handle of a restroom door" (§2-301.12(C)).
Hand sanitizer is not a substitute. A hand antiseptic must "Be applied only to hands that are cleaned as specified under § 2-301.12" (§2-301.16(A)(3)). Sanitizer after washing, if you like; never instead of it.
When to wash: a chart for your stations
Before "engaging in FOOD preparation including working with exposed FOOD, clean EQUIPMENT and UTENSILS, and unwrapped SINGLE-SERVICE and SINGLE-USE ARTICLES", and after any of the moments in §2-301.14. Here they are with café examples:
The Code (§2-301.14) | At a café |
|---|---|
"After touching bare human body parts other than clean hands and clean, exposed portions of arms" | Touching your face, hair or phone in your pocket |
"After using the toilet room" | Every time, before going back to the station |
"After caring for or handling SERVICE ANIMALS or aquatic animals" | Petting a guest's service dog at the counter |
"after coughing, sneezing, using a handkerchief or disposable tissue, using TOBACCO PRODUCTS, eating, or drinking" | Back from a break, a snack or a smoke |
"After handling soiled EQUIPMENT or UTENSILS" | Bussing tables, unloading the dish rack's dirty side |
"During FOOD preparation, as often as necessary to remove soil and contamination and to prevent cross contamination when changing tasks" | From register to bar, from bar to pastry case |
"When switching between working with raw FOOD and working with READY-TO-EAT FOOD" | Cracking raw eggs, then plating toast |
"Before donning gloves to initiate a task that involves working with FOOD" | Every new pair of gloves |
"After engaging in other activities that contaminate the hands" | Taking out trash, handling cash, receiving boxes, using chemicals |
Post your own version at the bar and the line.
Where to wash
"FOOD EMPLOYEES shall clean their hands in a HANDWASHING SINK or APPROVED automatic handwashing facility and may not clean their hands in a sink used for FOOD preparation or WAREWASHING, or in a service sink or a curbed cleaning facility used for the disposal of mop water and similar liquid waste" (§2-301.15).
So: not the bar sink, the prep sink, the three-compartment sink or the mop sink. If the hand sink is too far away to use, that's a layout problem to fix.
What a hand sink needs
Requirement | The Code |
|---|---|
Always reachable | "A HANDWASHING SINK shall be maintained so that it is accessible at all times for EMPLOYEE use" (§5-205.11(A); the 2026 edition says "always accessible") |
Only for hands | "A HANDWASHING SINK may not be used for purposes other than handwashing" (§5-205.11(B)) |
Warm water | "at a temperature of at least 29.4°C (85°F) through a mixing valve or combination faucet" (§5-202.12(A)) |
Long enough flow | A self-closing or metering faucet "shall provide a flow of water for at least 15 seconds without the need to reactivate the faucet" (§5-202.12(C)) |
Soap | "a supply of hand cleaning liquid, powder, or bar soap" (§6-301.11) |
A way to dry | Disposable towels, a continuous towel system, a heated-air dryer or an air-knife dryer (§6-301.12) |
A sign | "A sign or poster that notifies FOOD EMPLOYEES to wash their hands shall be provided at all HANDWASHING SINKS used by FOOD EMPLOYEES" (§6-301.14) |
A bin | A sink with disposable towels "shall be provided with a waste receptacle" (§6-301.20) |
Where sinks go: "To allow convenient use by EMPLOYEES in FOOD preparation, FOOD dispensing, and WAREWASHING areas" and "In, or immediately adjacent to, toilet rooms" (§5-204.11). Adding or moving one is a plan review question for your health department.
The hand sink checklist
List every hand sink once, then check each one at opening, at the midday changeover and before close.
Sink list
No. | Where | Faucet type | Drying | Who checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bar, next to espresso machine | Manual | Paper towels | Opening barista |
2 | Kitchen line | Foot pedal | Paper towels | Opening cook |
3 | Staff restroom | Metering | Air dryer | Shift lead |
Each check
Check | Sink 1 | Sink 2 | Sink 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
Nothing in the basin or in front of it (no pitchers, rags, crates) | |||
Warm water within a few seconds; a metering tap runs 15 seconds | |||
Soap dispenser works and is at least a quarter full | |||
Towels stocked, or the dryer works | |||
Bin present and not overflowing | |||
Handwashing sign in place and readable | |||
Initials and time |
Fix anything that fails before service; a sink that can't be fixed goes to the manager right away. Without a working hand sink, call your health department before you keep serving. Hand sinks are on the mock inspection scoring sheet too.
Training: show, then watch
- Show it at the actual sink each new hire will use, with the steps and the when-to-wash chart.
- Watch them do it once, counting the full 20 seconds out loud.
- Walk the station and ask them to point at the moments they'd wash: "you just took out the trash; now what?"
- Sign it off on their training sign-off sheet.
Do it on day one of orientation.
The manager's observation log
Once a shift, quietly watch a few handwashing moments and write down what you saw. The point is to find where the routine breaks.
Time | Employee | Moment (after trash, before gloves, raw to ready-to-eat…) | Washed? | Full procedure? | Coaching given |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yes / No | Yes / No | ||||
Yes / No | Yes / No |
If everyone misses the same moment, look at the setup first: a sink too far away, no towels at the rush.
Where Mays fits
- The sink check on the checklist. Add one task per sink to your opening, midday and closing templates, with a Photo answer, so the manager sees the sink, not just a tick. See Creating a checklist template and Scheduling checklists.
- The procedure where staff can find it. Keep the steps and your station chart in the Knowledge Base; staff read them in the app. See Knowledge base basics.
- A quiz and a nudge. An admin can make a short training module from that article under Learning → Modules, and snap quizzes send one question at a time to people on shift who haven't passed yet. See Creating training modules and Snap quizzes.
- The observation log as a form. An admin builds a form under Tasks → Types with Repeatable rows holding an Employee field, a Single choice for the moment, Yes / No for washed and full procedure, and a Text field for coaching. See Building custom forms.
- A broken sink. Post it in the Logbook under Health & Safety or Maintenance with Needs follow-up, so the next manager sees it. See The manager logbook.
What Mays doesn't do: a "No" on a sink check isn't highlighted or counted on its own, so read the day's answers, and reject a sink check that wasn't done right so it goes back with your reason. See Reviewing and rejecting tasks.
Twenty seconds, the right sink, every time
Twenty seconds, at a hand sink, at every moment on the chart. The checklist keeps the sink ready; the training and the log keep the habit.
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