Should restaurant employees (kitchen staff) wear vinyl gloves?

[Ns1]

vinyl gloves = illusion of safety

The problem is that you are assuming they wash their hands properly after touching raw chicken. It is far more convenient simply to toss the gloves and put on a fresh pair than the spend 2 minutes washing your hands properly. Cross contamination is a big deal, and I'm sure it happens far more often than you think.

Problem: line cooks are too lazy to change gloves or owners are too cheap to constantly buy gloves

 

[OBLAMA2009]

It's 30 seconds to properly wash your hands, although there is benefit to shorter washes too.

Most restaurants have everything separated. You'll prep all your raw chicken ahead of time, and will use tongs to throw it in the pan or whatever.

I just feel bad about eating something that someone else had to wear protective equipment to handle.

you know what is nasty? those stations that you see everywhere now with the hand rub. when you rub your hands with that stuff they really do feel cleaner, but at the same time you know all that stuff is still on your hands, it didnt go anywhere (liker down the sink). those thangs be makin peeps not wash they hands propa!

 

[Strk]

this is ridiculous. they passed a gloves rule here in sf and i think they just got rid of it. clammy hands inside gloves are way nastier than someone touchin ur food. also even if a cook goes to the bathroom and doesnt wash his hands before making ur food, his hands are still cleaner than the chicken or beef that was crapping all over itself a week earlier or the veggies that just got pissed and shat on in the field all season by the farm worker who didnt feel like walking to the official bathroon

For the most part the only reason that chicken or beef would have anything bad on it because of bad butchers and slaughterhouses. Sure, there could be salmonella, but as far as all the fecal bacteria we worry about (I.e. E.Coli), it's not supposed to touch the meat unless we're screwing up like having a chef not wash his hands after wiping his ass.

Oh, and always wash your fruits and vegetables. Besides the growing and picking, that stuff ships in dirty, open cardboard boxes and gets shuffled around filthy warehouses after it gets picked before it even gets to the stores.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

For the most part the only reason that chicken or beef would have anything bad on it because of bad butchers and slaughterhouses. Sure, there could be salmonella, but as far as all the fecal bacteria we worry about (I.e. E.Coli), it's not supposed to touch the meat unless we're screwing up like having a chef not wash his hands after wiping his ass.

Oh, and always wash your fruits and vegetables. Besides the growing and picking, that stuff ships in dirty, open cardboard boxes and gets shuffled around filthy warehouses after it gets picked before it even gets to the stores.

youre eating something that got pulled from the ground, theres no way it isnt dirtier than the hands of the cook that wiped his ass and didnt wash his hands.

i think veggies and fruits are washed a bit by the sellers cuz they dont have much dirt or dust on them for stuff thats been outside for a couple months

 

[silverpig]

youre eating something that got pulled from the ground, theres no way it isnt dirtier than the hands of the cook that wiped his ass and didnt wash his hands.

i think veggies and fruits are washed a bit by the sellers cuz they dont have much dirt or dust on them for stuff thats been outside for a couple months

Depends on what you mean by "dirt" though.

The stuff that will mess you up is fecal bacteria like e.coli. That'll be on the asswiper's hands and will get onto your food. That's bad.

If the food comes just out of the ground, it'll have "dirt" but probably not anything dangerous like e.coli, unless it was sprayed with shit-based fertilizer.

Fruit and veggies are usually washed yes, but go check out a bunch of spinach at the store the next time and see how much dirt there is on it. A bunch of that dirt is likely cow shit.

 

[silverpig]

you know what is nasty? those stations that you see everywhere now with the hand rub. when you rub your hands with that stuff they really do feel cleaner, but at the same time you know all that stuff is still on your hands, it didnt go anywhere (liker down the sink). those thangs be makin peeps not wash they hands propa!

AFAIK that's mostly just alcohol with some kind of gel (aloe?).

The alcohol kills the germs and then evaporates. The gel is absorbed into your skin or evaporates.

 

[Strk]

AFAIK that's mostly just alcohol with some kind of gel (aloe?).

The alcohol kills the germs and then evaporates. The gel is absorbed into your skin or evaporates.

The funny part is that it can dry out your hands pretty badly and cause breaks in the skin. Staph, which lives on us and doesn't do much of anything, can then get under the skin and cause problems.

 

[smackababy]

vinyl gloves = illusion of safety



Problem: line cooks are too lazy to change gloves or owners are too cheap to constantly buy gloves

So, a line cook that is too lazy to change gloves isn't too lazy to spend more time and effort washing their hands between raw chicken and touching the fryer handle? Yeah, that is logical.

 

[Ns1]

So, a line cook that is too lazy to change gloves isn't too lazy to spend more time and effort washing their hands between raw chicken and touching the fryer handle? Yeah, that is logical.

Exactly, a line cook that's too lazy to wash their hands is going to be too damn lazy to change their gloves. you gain nothing by adding a gloves requirement except fucking over professional chefs that give a damn.

 

[vbuggy]

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)

Exactly. I think wearing gloves actually encourages less hand washing, and on top of that you have the issues that staff are working the till as well as serving food as pointed out above. I watch delis to see who does what and if they're handling money with gloves I don't buy.

 

[smackababy]

Exactly, a line cook that's too lazy to wash their hands is going to be too damn lazy to change their gloves. you gain nothing by adding a gloves requirement except fucking over professional chefs that give a damn.

While I agree a lazy piece of shit line cook is going to be a health hazard no matter what, gloves are an easy solution to help some of the slightly less lazies of the world get by properly. Changing gloves takes maybe 5 seconds of extra effort. And a professional chef isn't going to be that bothered by using gloves.

 

[Ns1]

While I agree a lazy piece of shit line cook is going to be a health hazard no matter what, gloves are an easy solution to help some of the slightly less lazies of the world get by properly. Changing gloves takes maybe 5 seconds of extra effort. And a professional chef isn't going to be that bothered by using gloves.

Personal observations of lower-level line cooks tell me that they are too lazy to do that.

And if they were good enough to spend the extra 5 seconds to change their gloves, they were probably good enough to spend the 20 seconds to wash their hands.

 

[Gunbuster]

I love seeing employees at the likes of Chipolte frantically switching between handling cash and grabbing new gloves. Extra points for them touching all over the outside of the glove with their dirty hand while trying to get them on.

 

[smackababy]

Personal observations of lower-level line cooks tell me that they are too lazy to do that.

And if they were good enough to spend the extra 5 seconds to change their gloves, they were probably good enough to spend the 20 seconds to wash their hands.

So, the good ones save time (not having to frequently scrub their hands) and the bad ones continue being bad. Not a huge problem, even if it pointless feel good legislation.

 

[Ns1]

So, the good ones save time (not having to frequently scrub their hands) and the bad ones continue being bad. Not a huge problem, even if it pointless feel good legislation.

Except you also screw over guys that have no business wearing gloves, e.g. Sushi chefs.

 

[soulcougher73]

No. How do you expect us to increase our immune system if we dont get exposed.

 

[OutHouse]

I wear gloves at home when I de-skin the bushel of peppers i roast every late summer. plus open the windows and put on a mask. lol

 

[OverVolt]

When I was helping out in my grandmother's restaurant, I never minded using gloves. I've debated getting some for the home as well. It was just more convenient to be able to hand rub some briskets down and not having to spend 2 minutes at a sink cleaning them before you touch anything else. Remove the gloves, pop on a fresh pair and continue on. Anyone who works in a kitchen that complains the use of gloves is time consumer or a hindrance isn't washing their hands properly to begin with.

Granted, I'm also a guy that doesn't enjoy my hands being particularly dirty.

Thats about how long doctors wash their hands when they go into surgery lol.

 

[styrafoam]

Nobody is immune to HepC. Gloves aren't a replacement for a good cleanliness policy, but there is more to the concept then just protecting the public from someone who is derelict in their hand washing.