Tag Archives: Disposable Gloves

Magic glove syndrome

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Gonzalo already blogged about the last episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey in which the ladies were preparing for Thanksgiving. I, however, am a bit behind on my television viewing and just got to the episode today on the DVR.

Caroline’s family went to visit their daughter Lauren’s boyfriend’s family at their Italian food store, Little Italy Deli. One of the men behind the counter handed Caroline a bowl of soup with a gloved hand, and then Marco (or Vito Jr’s brother) struck this pose (right, exactly as pictured). What’s the point of wearing sanitary gloves if you’re going to rub them on your unprotected hand? Apparently there is some cultural confusion about whom the gloves protect, the food handler or the client. In food safety language this is referred to as magic glove syndrome.

Next on the show, they got Lauren behind the meat slicer. She had her left hand gloved and her right hand unprotected. Presumably she was using her left hand only to touch the meat. When she was corrected about slicer use, however, she touched the meat with an ungloved finger. 

Magic glove syndrome

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Gonzalo already blogged about the last episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey in which the ladies were preparing for Thanksgiving. I, however, am a bit behind on my television viewing and just got to the episode today on the DVR.

Caroline’s family went to visit their daughter Lauren’s boyfriend’s family at their Italian food store, Little Italy Deli. One of the men behind the counter handed Caroline a bowl of soup with a gloved hand, and then Marco (or Vito Jr’s brother) struck this pose (right, exactly as pictured). What’s the point of wearing sanitary gloves if you’re going to rub them on your unprotected hand? Apparently there is some cultural confusion about whom the gloves protect, the food handler or the client. In food safety language this is referred to as magic glove syndrome.

Next on the show, they got Lauren behind the meat slicer. She had her left hand gloved and her right hand unprotected. Presumably she was using her left hand only to touch the meat. When she was corrected about slicer use, however, she touched the meat with an ungloved finger. 

Does wearing gloves mean safer food?

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A number of fast food restaurants insist their staff wear gloves when preparing food, just like Michael Jackson when performing. However, wearing gloves does not necessarily mean safer food. A study conducted by University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, indicates that levels of heterotrophic bacteria, which is one way of determining level of hygiene, were essentially higher on staff wearing gloves than on bare hands. Perhaps this may be due to food service staff wearing gloves for an extended period of time without changing them and without handwashing in between. Also, there seems to be this mentality that wearing gloves signifies less handwashing because bare hands are not in contact with food. This notion is false and should never replace handwashing.

 

Are disposable gloves necessary to prepare meat in a home kitchen?

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Food is marketed as 21st century snake oil — a veritable sideshow of hucksters and buskers, flogging their wares to the highest bidder or at least the most fashionable.

And never underestimate the ability of American industry to make a buck off a trend. In this case, it’s food safety, and keeping those nasty bugs away from clean hands.

A colleague passed along this picture of the latest kitchen necessity – Playtex Disposable Gloves, to “Handle raw meat, poultry and seafood with confidence.”

But just like in food service, gloves can provide a false sense of security. Doesn’t matter whether someone is wearing gloves or not, they scratch their ass and cross-contamination is a possibility.

It goes both ways.

If I’m wearing these things while preparing my raw meat, and baby Sorenne or the dogs or Amy demands attention, I may forget I’m wearing bacterial-laden gloves and cross-contaminate.

Reminds me of 2002 when some PR type contacted me to see if I’d endorse Saran Cutting Sheets. These were the new thing, a way to reduce cross-contamination through disposable cutting sheets. The manufacturers commissioned a survey in Oct. 2002 that allegedly found that 65 per cent of Canadians are concerned about food poisoning and nearly as many, 62 per cent, feel they know how to prevent it.

After asking why anyone would want me to endorse anything, me and the PR person had a chat about the human behavior research they had done to verify that people wouldn’t cross-contaminate on these disposable sheets. They hadn’t done any such research, but insisted they knew how all Canadians would handle the new product.

I also said the sheets were unnecessary for the typical kitchen, ad the PR type assured me the sheets were for times when soap, water and cutting boards weren’t readily available, like camping.

I said, maybe there was a role for the things in such situations but without the consumer behavior research, I wasn’t endorsing anything.

When the TV blitz began, with some celebrity chef, the tagline was, Saran Cutting Sheets – No Kitchen is Complete Without Them.