Elara Partners With Food Safety Leader Handwashingforlife Institute

Elara Foodservice Disposables LLC and HandwashingForLife Institute have announced a joint partnership in the promotion of food safety, hand hygiene and proper glove use in the foodservice industry. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are more than 48 million foodborne illnesses with 3,000 resulting deaths each year. On the employer side, billions of dollars are estimated to be lost each year as a result of foodborne illnesses. These numbers underscore the importance of food safety in the industry.

The need for education, training and behavioral change is acute. According to Jim Mann, Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the HandwashingForLife Institute, "No one gets fired for not washing or changing their gloves, but employees are quickly fired for breaches in customer service. Until management changes the culture and starts treating handwashing as a true priority, barriers to compliance will persist."

The HandwashingForLife Institute is a global organization devoted to advancing the science of hand hygiene with the purpose of reducing the incidence of foodborne illness and nosocomial infections caused by poor hand hygiene. The Institute runs the food safety education and resource website HandwashingForLife.com.

"Elara is a perfect fit with our specs for leadership, innovation and customer service," states Mann. "Single-use gloves are treated as a commodity by most of their competitors. We selected Elara as a partner for that reason."

Mann has over 30 years of industry experience and currently co-chairs the Coalition for Clean Hands with the Centre for Disease Control. He has been recognized by NSF, NEHA and the FDA as a leading authority on hand hygiene.

"Our partnership with the HandwashingForLife Institute will help promote hand hygiene best practices and share our expertise in the area of disposable gloves," says Dan Grinberg, President and Founder of Elara. "Proper hand hygiene is critical in foodservice operations. Recognizing the importance of handwashing in conjunction with the proper use of high quality gloves in protecting the public from foodborne illness outbreaks, we look forward to increasing the industry's awareness of the issues and seeing adherence to proper procedures."

About Elara Foodservice Disposables LLC

Elara Foodservice Disposables is a designer and producer of high quality food contact gloves, plastic cutlery, food storage bags and related products for restaurant and institutional foodservice operators. The company is dedicated to providing customers with high quality products and food safety programs at affordable prices. Elara also has a social mission built into its DNA - fighting hunger. For every case of product it sells, Elara provides a meal for someone struggling with hunger. Headquartered in Jericho, NY, Elara was founded by Dan Grinberg, a recognized supporter of hunger relief who previously built and sold FoodHandler Inc. For more information about Elara Foodservice Disposables, visit http://elaradisposables.com.