People learn from childhood to wash their hands before eating or preparing food. But is hand sanitizer a good substitute for soap and water? Is it safe to touch food after using a hand sanitizer?
You can touch food after using hand sanitizer as long as you wait until it is thoroughly dry. Although hand sanitizers contain alcohol, it evaporates quickly and does not remain on your hands. However, many hand sanitizers contain gels, lotions, scents, or other ingredients that may leave an unpleasant taste on your fingers.
After the sanitizer has dried on your hands, if you lick your fingers while eating, either accidentally or on purpose, you may notice a bitter taste. This may seem dangerous, but it isn’t.
It’s completely safe to use hand sanitizer before eating, cooking, or handling food in any way. There are no ingredients in hand sanitizer that are harmful or poisonous when ingested in the tiny amounts that are left deposited on dried hands.
Hand sanitizer can be dangerous when eaten in large amounts directly from the bottle, however.
What Is Hand Sanitizer?
Many people use hand sanitizer to kill germs that may cause illness. Is hand sanitizer effective in killing bacteria and viruses? If so, how does it do it?
Hand sanitizers contain from 60% to 70% ethyl or isopropyl alcohol, which works to kill any disease-causing pathogens on the skin. The inactive ingredients vary from brand to brand, but are usually softening gels or lotions and natural or artificial colors or fragrances.
For example, the popular hand sanitizer Purell contains 70% ethyl alcohol as the active ingredient. When used as directed, hand sanitizer can kill up to 99% of disease-causing germs, according to Purell.
Since alcohol naturally dries the skin, Purell and other manufacturers of hand sanitizer add inactive ingredients designed to soothe the skin. In Purell, they include the following:
- Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (from the aloe vera plant)
- Carprylyl Glycol (a skin conditioning agent)
- Citrus Autrantium Dulcis Peel (orange peel)
- Isopropyl Myristate (a moisturizer)
- Lavandula Hybrida Oil (a floral aroma)
- Litsea Cubeba Fruit Oil (a citrus aroma)
- Pelagonium Graveolens Oil (from geraniums)
- Pogostemon Cablin Oil (commonly known as patchouli, a fragrant oil)
- Tocopheryal Acetate (a source of Vitamin E)
Denaturants such as isopropyl alcohol are another ingredient that most manufacturers also include. Denaturants add a bad taste to hand sanitizer in in order to deter people (especially children) from ingesting enough of it to cause accidental poisoning.
What Happens to Hand Sanitizer After You Apply It to Your Hands?
Everyone knows what hand sanitizer feels like when applied. It tingles a bit, and it can make any cuts or scrapes on your hand tingle. But what else is going on that you can’t see?
When you apply hand sanitizer to your hands, the alcohol starts going to work killing the disease-causing pathogens by disrupting and dissolving the cell membranes of the bacteria and viruses. Then, the alcohol evaporates, leaving the inactive ingredients behind on your hands.
Your hands may feel sticky while you’re rubbing in the hand sanitizer. This is from the moisturizers, especially the gels.
After a few moments, the alcohol will evaporate, and the sticky feeling should, too. But often, the alcohol has a drying effect, and if you use hand sanitizer often, your hands may start to dry out.
If you have eczema, the alcohol can cause flare-ups leading to red, rough, or itchy patches on your hands.
Dry, cracked skin actually increases your chances of catching germs.
There are also concerns about hand sanitizer causing resistance to antibiotics, but so far no studies have demonstrated a clear connection.
What Can Happen if You Accidentally Eat Hand Sanitizer?
Although few adults would consider eating hand sanitizer, the product is often tinted pretty colors and packaged to be attractive. This may be tempting for small children. What happens if they eat it?
Hand sanitizer can be dangerous if ingested, especially for children. Eating even a small amount of hand sanitizer can cause symptoms of alcohol poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting, mental confusion, or loss of consciousness.
Although there isn’t any danger if your kids lick their fingers after using hand sanitizer, if your catch your child eating or drinking it, you should call a poison control center immediately.
Most accidents involving hand sanitizer occur in children aged 5 or younger. It’s important to supervise children under 6 when they are using hand sanitizer and keep the product out of their reach.
The alcohol used in commercial hand sanitizers isn’t poisonous, but just like the alcohol in beer and wine, it can make you drunk. Since children are smaller in size and weight, it takes less alcohol to produce drunkenness.
The physical symptoms can include lower heart rate and decreased breathing rate. It can also cause low blood sugar, which in extreme cases can lead to unconsciousness.
If you notice a child has ingested hand sanitizer, poison control experts advise you to give the child something sweet to drink to restore proper blood sugar levels. Then, seek medical advice or call a poison control hotline.
When calling poison control, make sure you have the bottle of hand sanitizer so you can read the ingredients if asked.
It is dangerous to try to get drunk by deliberately ingesting hand sanitizer.
Almost all commercially-sold hand sanitizers have been manufactured with oversight. However, avoid using homemade hand sanitizers because they could contain much more dangerous ingredients, such as methanol.
There is also a danger of getting hand sanitizer in your eyes by touching your eyes after using it. You may also stand too close to a spray hand sanitizer or splash the product accidentally from a tube.
If hand sanitizer gets in your eyes, it can cause your eyes to become red and irritated. It may cause damage to your cornea as well. Wash your eyes out immediately with water.
Is It Better to Wash or Sanitize Your Hands Before Eating?
If there are potential problems with hand sanitizer, isn’t it better to wash your hands instead?
Washing your hands before eating or handling food is better than using hand sanitizer because soap and water kills disease-causing germs and other substances that hand sanitizers sometimes miss. However, if handwashing is not feasible, using a hand sanitizer is acceptable.
Hand sanitizers do not kill germs such as the norovirus and Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), which can cause severe diarrhea. They are also ineffective at removing chemicals and other contaminants from your hands that handwashing can easily remove.
When washing your hands, use plenty of soap. Although there are some antibacterial soaps available, they are not more effective than other kinds of soap.
Liquid soap is recommended over bar soap, however, especially if the soap is used by more than one person. A bar of soap can become contaminated and spread germs from one person to another.
Warmer water may be more comfortable for your hands, but it’s not true that hot water will kill more germs.
To effectively wash hands, you should rub them with soap for at least 20 seconds. Many experts recommended that you sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice to estimate the length of time.
Many people don’t wash properly, and as a result, don’t remove all the germs present on their hands. After applying soap, experts recommend that you follow these steps:
- Rub your palms together
- Use one hand to scrub the back of the other hand; then switch hands
- Interlace your fingers and scrub vigorously
- Make a fist and rub the back of your fingers against the palm of the other hand; then switch hands
- Rub each thumb
After making sure all surfaces of your hands have been washed, front and back, rinse your hands thoroughly. Then dry them with a towel.
If you are in a public restroom, use the towel to turn off the water and open the restroom door to exit.
A thorough handwashing before eating or handling food prevents disease-causing pathogens from transferring to the food.
Another advantage of handwashing vs. hand sanitizer is that handwashing will not leave a nasty taste on your fingers if you lick them while eating.
Long fingernails can sometimes harbor germs, and they are difficult to clean. If you regularly handle food for others to consume, such as in a cafeteria or restaurant, you should keep your nails trimmed short.
If you’re in a place where handwashing is not possible or soap is not available, using hand sanitizer is the next best option.