Should restaurant employees (kitchen staff) wear vinyl gloves?

[NetWareHead]

Food/cooking is one of my hobbies and when watching the Food Network or other cooking shows, many times a chef is shown preparing food items wearing vinyl gloves. You go to a buffet nowadays for instance that has a meat station and the chef slicing the side of roast ham is wearing vinyl gloves. I went to Chipotle the other day and the workers manning the grill are cooking with gloves.

On the other end of the spectrum are the workers that absolutely hate them. I worked in a family restaurant for 10 years. Try explaining/convincing a 60 year old restaurant owner who has been cooking his whole life and never been cited for food safety violations that he now has to wear gloves while cooking. If the jurisdiction calls for gloves, most of the time they are only worn when the health inspector has scheduled a inspection. Otherwise its cooking with bare hands.

I personally hate them. My hands sweat under the gloves. Try working in a 100+ degree kitchen and you hands are one more body part that are sweating. I hate the feeling of sweat accumulating under the vinyl gloves. The catch on everything and rip. You reach into a hot oven and the heat simply wilts the material causing it to pop open. You are cutting raw chicken breasts and can't just wash your hands, you need to discard them. Every time you touch something containing bacteria or reach into an oven, thats a pair of gloves ruined. Figure each worker will probably use 25-75 pairs of gloves a night depending on how busy it is. This amounts to a noticeable expense for a restaurant.

I like to work with my hands. I wash them frequently. I have never contracted or given food poisoning to anyone when I cook. I practice food safety and don't mess around or cross contaminate cutting boards, knives, work surfaces etc... I smoked a brisket and ribs a few weeks ago and that involved me massaging vegetable oil and dry spice rub into a 2 foot brisket slab as well as numerous sides of ribs. All with my bare hands, I just dont think gloves are necessary. I can't imagine stretching pizza dough by hand wearing gloves. it also does not bother me if my food is cooked/prepped/served by someone not wearing gloves.

What does ATOT think? Do you prefer people handling your food to be gloved? Anyone with food prep/restaurant experience here love or hate them?

 

[Mayne]

I did the food industry too. Costumers better be seeing gloved hands.

 

[notposting]

I don't really care, it's the proper food safety procedures that I care about. Nearly any fast food place is going to be absolutely abominable in that regard. Run of the mill restaurants might be a step up, but probably still sketchy in some areas. Maybe in some top of the line places that I sure as hell can't afford ( ) it might be good, but I dunno.

I make sure to not even look into the back of a fast food place anymore. You see someone grab the raw food and then the cooked food and then maybe go take some money and then scratch their ass and text on their phone, all with the same pair of gloves...

Heck, I mostly just try to cook at home. And teach my 3 year proper food safety and handling.

(did do fast food work years ago and had to deal with them, the tighter/powdered kind weren't too bad if they offered the proper range of sizes -- the dumb ass giant loose baggy things are just worthless though)

 

[notposting]

Of course, what would really help more than dumb shit laws about wearing gloves, would be having enough inspectors to drop the hammer and step enforcement up.

Oh and look, it would solve the wage problem too, because the food service industry would need to pay a wage high enough to attract and retain people responsible enough to follow the regulations consistently, even when no one is watching (that they know of).

 

[DrPizza]

I've worked in the food industry for 30 years, and most of your whiny excuses are BS. They don't pop open in the oven. My hands are frequently inside 550 degree ovens - with air impinging, and the gloves are just fine.

To a degree though, I agree - there are plenty of idiots who will handle raw chicken with gloves on, then without replacing the gloves, will handle raw vegetables. And, if you're estimating 75 pairs of gloves a night... in an 8 hour shift, that's a different pair about every 6 minutes. Sweat is NOT going to accumulate under those circumstances. Further, I'd estimate that roughly half of the time, you're doing tasks that don't require gloves; thus your estimate seems very high. Still, the gloves are dirt cheap. I picked up 100 pair a couple of months ago at wholesale; I think they were 2.97. The cost isn't that exorbitant.

The rules are usually up to the local health codes; in NY, it's by county. So, I can't say what it is in your particular situation. However, at least around here, you don't have to wear gloves when working with food that's going to be cooked to a safe temperature; therefore, you wouldn't need them for stretching pizza dough. Personally, before I handled raw chicken, if I had gloves - and I do - I'd put the gloves on because it's just that much easier to help prevent cross contamination (I wash my hands, too.)

 

[DrPizza]

Of course, what would really help more than dumb shit laws about wearing gloves, would be having enough inspectors to drop the hammer and step enforcement up.

Oh and look, it would solve the wage problem too, because the food service industry would need to pay a wage high enough to attract and retain people responsible enough to follow the regulations consistently, even when no one is watching (that they know of).

I can't recall the last time I saw an employee not using gloves when they were required to. The other day at a fast food place, I saw an employee wearing gloves for the purpose of keeping their hands out of whatever chemical they were spraying to clean some surfaces. When they looked up and saw me, they took those gloves off, and put on fresh gloves before touching any food. It comes pretty natural to most people - maybe the people in your region who work in food places are simply more stupid on average.

 

[notposting]

Past what DrPizza mentioned, some of this stuff should be broken down more -- why is one person handling all this food, all the way from start to finish. Also, my recollection is that they did not have to get changed every 6 minutes lol. Also, some tongs would do wonders.

 

[notposting]

It comes pretty natural to most people - maybe the people in your region who work in food places are simply more stupid on average.

DETROIT AREA :whiste:

 

[jhansman]

I work with people who will use the bathroom, and when done, walk right out without washing. Now, I do not work in the food industry, but this kind of idiocy can be found anywhere. Do I want these people handling my food?

 

[notposting]

FWIW, when I lived up in Houghton/Hancock, things were a LOT better than what I've seen down around here.

 

[Babbles]

It's interesting, in my opinion, that the drive to use gloves is to reduce microbial cross-contamination.

However, vinyl and other plastic gloves can contaminate food with phthalates and other plasticizes. So sure we can make food 'healthier' with gloves, but at the same time we can make it more carcinogenic with gloves.

I suspect the real goal here is to ensure food safety. There are other mechanisms (e.g. training, cleanliness, etc) that can improve safety. Mandating the use of gloves seems to be the lazy persons way of meandering to the goal.

 

[NetWareHead]

I've worked in the food industry for 30 years, and most of your whiny excuses are BS. They don't pop open in the oven. My hands are frequently inside 550 degree ovens - with air impinging, and the gloves are just fine.
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To a degree though, I agree - there are plenty of idiots who will handle raw chicken with gloves on, then without replacing the gloves, will handle raw vegetables. And, if you're estimating 75 pairs of gloves a night... in an 8 hour shift, that's a different pair about every 6 minutes. Sweat is NOT going to accumulate under those circumstances. Further, I'd estimate that roughly half of the time, you're doing tasks that don't require gloves; thus your estimate seems very high. Still, the gloves are dirt cheap. I picked up 100 pair a couple of months ago at wholesale; I think they were 2.97. The cost isn't that exorbitant.

The rules are usually up to the local health codes; in NY, it's by county. So, I can't say what it is in your particular situation. However, at least around here, you don't have to wear gloves when working with food that's going to be cooked to a safe temperature; therefore, you wouldn't need them for stretching pizza dough. Personally, before I handled raw chicken, if I had gloves - and I do - I'd put the gloves on because it's just that much easier to help prevent cross contamination (I wash my hands, too.)

Don't know what to tell you. My gloves popped/weakened when hit by oven heat. We did have a 900 degree oven/huge salamander/grill combo so maybe there is the difference between your equipment and mine. I hate the feeling of wet sweaty hands and sweat sometimes running down my forearms. Never had that problem without gloves.

75 was the highest I could reasonably estimate in some circumstances, its not a given for each night. The estimate per night included the prep period before the busy dinner hour. The time when you are prepping meats/fish, parboiling pasta/rice etc, slicing veggies. If you have a 12 hour workday I could see someone going through quite a few pairs of gloves.

If you diligently wash your hands after handling raw chicken, even while wearing gloves, don't the gloves become redundant?

 

[Humpy]

At Subway and other places like that I am happy when I seem them put on fresh gloves before making my food.

At the few real restaurants we go to I don't care because the food is so good that the cooks obviously know what they are doing.

So, fast food, yes. Fine dining, no.

 

[Mai72]

My mom was in the restaurant business for 25 years. She didn't wear gloves and the reason was she needed to touch the food before she prepared it. We were one of the cleanest restaurants in the area. Everything was bleached at the end of the day. The slicer was torn apart and cleaned. If it was old it was thrown out. Nothing was reused. EVER. Our food was prepped daily to ensure freshness. We even used individual tuna containers while other restaurants used the big restaurant style tuna cans. Tuna goes bad easily, but to save money most people overlook this. If it does go bad they just scoop the slime off the top and reuse the tuna. Nasty!

If you guys only knew just how nasty most restaurants are you would never eat out. I knew people who would even reuse the fries that people didn't eat so they could save money.

I still think we have way to many regulations. Germs aren't going to kill you. This picture was just taken in Bangkok, Thailand. Its how they wash their dishes at the outside food stalls. Can you imagine the soot and car exhaust that must cover the dishes. People eat at the food stalls all the time, and they haven't had an outbreak of deaths.

 

[Imp]

Japan's banned vinyl gloves for food preparation...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/dining/14glov.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

As a Chef, I wear gloves at work because it's policy. That said, it's a false security because those who don't practice good food handling practices don't start because they're wearing gloves. Corporate foodservices requirements for foodhandlers is all but crippling. There are a list of procedures so time consuming that they interfere with customer service. They've been foisted on kitchens NOT to improve customer service but, to protect corporations from litigation.

 

[Mai72]

As a Chef, I wear gloves at work because it's policy. That said, it's a false security because those who don't practice good food handling practices don't start because they're wearing gloves. Corporate foodservices requirements for foodhandlers is all but crippling. There are a list of procedures so time consuming that they interfere with customer service. They've been foisted on kitchens NOT to improve customer service but, to protect corporations from litigation.

Sue happy Americans. I went out to a Japanese all you can eat buffet last week in Bangkok. We prepped our own food. We had a grill for cooking our meats, and a pot for cooking our soup. And all of this goodness was on our table.

Try to do that in America. You can't because someone would do something stupid, get injured and would want to sue.

 

[Tsavo]

Wash, wash, wash. Always be washing.

Clean hands are much safer than the illusion of cleanliness that plastic gloves provide.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Wash, wash, wash. Always be washing.

Clean hands are much safer than the illusion of cleanliness that plastic gloves provide.

Ever been to a Korean BBQ?

Hell they have one in NYC that carry around hot coals and place them at your table to cook on.

 

[Mai72]

Wash, wash, wash. Always be washing.

Clean hands are much safer than the illusion of cleanliness that plastic gloves provide.

That and have hand sanitizer for the food preps to use. Using too much might actually backfire though.

 

[Mai72]

I work with people who will use the bathroom, and when done, walk right out without washing. Now, I do not work in the food industry, but this kind of idiocy can be found anywhere. Do I want these people handling my food?

But they do handle your food! If you only knew what goes on in the back of a lot of restaurants it would shock you.

Most restaurants are filthy. The only time they are not is when the food inspectors are going to visit.

 

[Imp]

Sue happy Americans. I went out to a Japanese all you can eat buffet last week in Bangkok. We prepped our own food. We had a grill for cooking our meats, and a pot for cooking our soup. And all of this goodness was on our table.

Oh, man. Last time I went to Korean BBQ, I limped home, and had to evacuate my bowels in a major fashion.

 

[Howard]

TIL that sushi chefs are required by law in some areas to wear gloves while preparing sushi.

yoiks

 

[Maximilian]

Handle food --> wear gloves!

I bought a melon in tesco ages ago and the checkout guy man handled my melon and he had the dirtiest fucking hands ever. I gave the melon to my girlfriend at the time who said she wasent bothered.

 

[DCal430]

In California most chefs and cooks DO NOT wear gloves and any attempts to require such has been blocked due the efforts of the restaurant industry. Just so you know when you dine out in California your chef could be touching your food with the hands he used to wipe you know what.