1293 EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH, VOL. I, ISSUE 6/ SEPEMBER 2013 ISSN 2286-4822, www.euacademic.org IMPACT FACTOR: 0.485 (GIF) Hand washing concerns and trends of male chefs/cooks working in hotels and restaurants: A survey in Karachi-Pakistan SIKANDAR KHAN SHERWANI 1 HAROON AHMAD 2 FAISAL RASHEED 3 OMM-E-HANY 4 AFTAB KHAN 5 ABDUL GHAFFAR 6 WAJAHAT NADEEM 7 SHAHANA U. KAZMI 8 Abstract: Food is a part and parcel of every body’s life. But if food is contaminated while cooking by hands so may spread food borne infection and thus a serious public health concern. In the current study, the practices of hand washing by chefs in their restaurants/hotels were investigated. The survey was exclusively conducted on 180 male participants belonged to 20% big and well developed hotels and found most of them 32% work for 1 st quarter of a day . The survey results also point out that 67% participants knew the importance of hand washing and 45% of respondents suffered from 1 Department of Microbiology- Federal Urdu University of Arts. Science and Technology, Karachi-Pakistan 2 Institute of Molecular Biology- University of Queensland, Australia 3 Life Science Group, Isotope Application Division (IAD), Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH). Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan 4 Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Karachi-Karachi-Pakistan 5 PMRC Research Centre, Khyber Medical College Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Pakistan 6 Department of Environmental Engineering, NED University of Engineering and Technology-Karachi Pakistan 7 Department of Biochemistry, Federal Urdu University of Arts. Science and Technology, Karachi-Pakistan 8 Department of Microbiology-University of Karachi, Karachi-Pakistan