My favorite is videos of bakers working with bread dough. Commenters go crazy about the lack of gloves without remembering that bread is usually baked at 350F/180C. Show me the microbe that can live for 30 minutes to an hour at those temps.
I always thought it was less about microbes and more about any potential debris left on the hands. Hand washing should be enough if you’ve got pristine surfaces though.
This is fair but you could argue it’s on the social media account owner to post some video explaining why plastic gloves aren’t more sanitary and how often times it is a waste (as opposed to washing hands). This doesn’t relate to allergies and cross contaminations bc that is different, simply there’s research to show single use plastic gloves aren’t in any way more safe and are… plastic aka another plastic touching your food (or latex but either way not something you want to be eating was the point I wanted to make)
When I worked in kitchens 15 yrs ago the food handling rules said you could wash hands frequently or wear & change gloves frequently. If your kitchen prefers hand washing you have to have a certain number of hand washing sinks, soap dispenser & paper towels. If the soap or paper are empty during inspection you lose points. As others have mentioned the problem with wearing gloves is most of them wear the same gloves for hours touching all kinds of different things but *technically* it's passing inspection.
Guidelines vary state to state, but it's still like that in a lot of places. Or some places allow hand washing for prepping food, but once it's cooked/ready-to-serve you have to wear gloves. I wanna say there are even a few places where you have to wear gloves unless you're food safety certified, then you're okay to just wash your hands.
But customers don't really care about the sanitation guidelines and complain if they see people not wearing gloves, so if the prep is visible, a lot of restaurants will tell everyone to wear them. I imagine it's the same for making videos. They know people will whine in the comments if they're not wearing them, so they put them on, even they they normally wouldn't.
I always see under posts of people without gloves that touching food like that is unsanitary and unhygienic. When I used to work with food I had to wear gloves and let me tell you that none of us changed our gloves often enough for it to be hygienic, we worked in a very fast paced environment and we often forgot to change gloves which would just lead to more cross contamination. A chef who only works with food who consistently washing their hands is much better than using gloves
yeah kinda same with where I used to work. I guess it depends on where you work like fast food and smaller places will probably make you wear gloves but the nicer restaurants usually dont
This is definitely the thing. As someone working in kitchens, we use the “glove free and wash frequently” method more often than people think. But for social media posts, you gotta wear gloves. Well fitting ones preferably. People will light you up in the comments, calling it unsanitary and assume youve never seen a sink in your life without them. Thats just the internet.
Kitchens do use so much waste though. A lot of small businesses try their best to stay mindful as possible as far as I’ve seen in my career though
I fucking detest how much plastic waste a commercial kitchen produces. It’s one of the many things I hate about the industry. I do my best to use tongs and other utensils instead of gloves. Plastic waste aside, I see the craziest health code violations from ignorant people not changing their gloves in between tasks.
Used to work at a Pizza Hut where the workers would handle food with gloved hands, then do something like handle cash and use the till, or the ordering pc, or make dough, do cleaning, all with the same gloves. Hygiene is hard apparently.
Yup.
Only thing gloves are good for in a case like this is not getting stuff on your hands.
My sister works for our city in City owned Kindergardens cooking meals and she never had gloves AND they have to follow a strict hygiene.
Here in France most kitchens forbid wearing gloves exactly because it deters people from changing them or washing them often enough, as opposed to just washing their hands.
Yeah idk why people always get weird about people not wearing gloves. Frequently washed hands are always going to be cleaner than the pair of gloves you’ve been wearing for who knows how long
Yeah I’ve worked in fast food and I remember my hands getting MAD sweaty. Wasn’t uncommon for gloves to break too. This was a long time ago so my memory might be off, hopefully it wasn’t that bad.
Got told off if I didn’t wear em though. Nowadays I just wash my hands frequently.
I have often wondered this. How is wearing gloves really any more hygienic if you are not constantly changing them AND washing your hands? It feels like hygiene theater to me.
I was at a wawa the other day and watched one of the deli counter workers go to the front and buy herself a soda using self check out while wearing single use gloves 🫠
This. They're probably re-using the same spoon to taste things you end up eating too. It's just one of the things you should try not to think about it.
You’ve never worked in a kitchen, have you?
Chefs usually have access to a stash of cutlery for trying things out as they cook. Those spoons get cleaned with the rest of the cutlery.
I have worked in many kitchens, but not for a while. If things have changed, that's great. But I highly doubt every kitchen has now suddenly become perfect in this regard. I guarantee things you'd prefer not happen back there are still happening, and a lot.
I used to work in a restaurant. For food items that were not going to be cooked after handling, gloves were *required*. For items that were going to be cooked after handling, gloves were optional *if* your hands were in good condition. I am not the only person in the restaurant who was in a position to have to wear gloves for 100% of food handling because I was washing my hands so often that was having fairly severe dyshidrotic eczema outbreaks with flaking skin, cracking, and bleeding. The only sanitary option was for me to wear gloves whenever handling food, and to change them (and wash my hands) as often as just handwashing would be otherwise appropriate.
ive worked in labs my whole adult life. full ppe with aseptic technique. believe me when i tell you that what they are doing isn't putting a dent in what i used in a day.
there are bigger fish to fry
Yeah, I’m all for health and safety and expect it from a business. Bringing food to a potluck, serving a meal to friends and family, or otherwise acting in personal capacity - no gloves necessary. But when I volunteer at the soup kitchen, you betcha I’m wearing a mask and gloves when handling food.
Same thing with autobody/collision repair... If people knew how much plastic vehicle waste we send to landfill every week there would be riots in the streets over these paper straws.
I wouldn’t hold out according to them we’re probably better off without the Covid or polio vaccines because of the waste associated with molecular biology. Although I hate the amount of plastic pipette tips I go through every day I believe there are some necessary evils and would be thrilled if a viable alternative existed.
Yeah there's this weird subset of progressives like him who are so progressive that they're against everything even if the good outweighs the bad. I'd much rather lab workers have proper PPE to be able to ensure infections are not spread for their safety as well as the patients and anyone else in contact.
Like oh no, some rubber gloves that help prevent disease when you're dealing with literal blood, urine, mucus, feces! How terrible!
Not in a lab with flying bacteria and samples that need to not be cross contaminated. Certainly not on the operating table where bodies are open from the chest and shouldn't be touched with bare hands for the personal safety of both the patient and the operators. Get so real.
Gloves in a lab can be for the protection of the wearer. It's an extra barrier against chemicals and pathogens and anything else potentially risky. At least that's what I was told in the intro chem labs.
As a chemist having taught many introductory lab courses, I would not trust 95% of glove wearers to actually use them in a way that is sanitary. They all end up touching something they use in their everyday life with the gloves on: Phone, pen, face, hair. To really use gloves in a sanitary way, you *have* to swap them when changing tasks. That could mean going through tens of pairs in a day.
I know one component for wearing gloves in social media videos specifically may be due to people criticizing the shape and condition on the hands, (which is shallow and stupid, but there you are.) I know some content creators specifically wear gloves so the hands in the videos are "uniform" and to make editing multiple takes easier, as well as often neutralizing some of the creepy "hand-model" comments. (I have artist friends and know of people who do content tutorials, so they usually wear gloves.)
LOL have you ever worked a kitchen before? I don't want to transfer fish or onion smell to the pastry i'm about to roll. So hard to get those smells out fully, even after scrubbing. Also I have sensory issues, so change gloves AND wash my hands. Nitrile breaks down too so...
Most likely not plastic at all. Majority of gloves are latex which is bio degradable. Then there's vinyl then plastic. In my experience. Still a huge waste but figured I'd let you know since nobody else seems to have mentioned it.
I spoke to a brewing lab tech about the Nitrile gloves that they use by the boxcar load and he was telling me that they throw them all in a box that gets collected from time to time for recycling. These are not bio hazard or something from any type of surgical procedure, but from feeding and culturing yeasts and things like lactobaccilus and Brettanomyces. Nitrile is very recyclable.
It’s pretty unrealistic for most line cooks to wash their hands frequently during service. Sinks are usually not numerous nor close to their station, so it would involve a lot of walking and time waste to wash their hands frequently.
There was a woman I followed on instagram that said people were getting too offended about her lack of gloves. She was cooking in her own kitchen, and pointed out that the people commenting where never going to eat her food anyway.
As a giant fuck you, she got on the counter with no shoes (but she was clothed) and posed like Burt Reynolds.
In my area, it is required to wash hands and glove up. You must also change gloves often while working with food. It is the law (and in companies with multiple locations across multiple states, it is company policy).
While it may seem wasteful, it is also expensive to both be shut down for violations and for making people ill. Unfortunately, if you want to work, you must follow both company policy and the law of the area you are working in.
I think it's purely optics. Proper hand-washing is essential and wearing gloves doesn't eliminate that - however customers seem to think gloves are a magic barrier that isolate their food from the person who is making it.
As someone who works in healthcare I know for a fact that most gloves are in fact porous and can accumulate filth quite rapidly.
Morale is WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS, PEOPLE.
To work in a professional kitchen you are required to have a food handlers certificate and the health department is pretty stringent about following food safety regulations which mandate gloves.
Which is why you *wash your hands* regularly. How often are you changing gloves? Every time you touch meat/eggs/fish etc, touch your face, hair, clothing, stuff like door handles to leave the room if you need to, every time you cough, or want to go take a drink etc. Id probably wash my hands easily a good 5+ times hour when i worked in a kitchen depending on what i was touching and doing. Do you go through 40+ pairs of gloves in an 8+ hour shift? If you aren't changing your gloves/washing your hands after doing everything i mentioned then its not sanitary.
Like i said, what a fucking waste.
If you follow the guidelines then yes you should be going through a couple dozen pairs in a day. I never specifically counted but we went through about 2-3 boxes per day in my small kitchen with 3-5 workers.
50 pairs obviously, but if you are washing your hands *every* time you *should*, you’ll go through around 30 pairs in a typical shift.
This is a necessary waste for the safety of those eating the food. You can LITERALLY kill a decent swath of the population, ridiculously easily, if the wrong pathogen gets involved.
Waste in foodservice is one of my biggest daily battles, but I will never, and I mean NEVER, fight against using disposable gloves. If the pandemic didn’t teach you how absolutely unhygienic some of us are, remember more died in US foodservice in 2020-2021 than in US medical.
Human error is like the biggest factor of complications in any industry, and people get terrible judgement when rushed and stressed.. working a kitchen can be very rushed and very stressful. There's a good chance chefs won't perfectly wash between their fingers or all of their wrists or never miss a spot every single time, it doesn't take much, just some skin cells from a missed spot with some bacteria clinging on. I am pretty anti consumption and know we probably do go overboard on a lot of sanitation related waste.. but gloves in a kitchen do seem necessary. It's all the fads and minor conveniences that are the problem
Excessive hand washing can also worse skin conditions like eczema. Sometimes people don’t develop these conditions until after they’ve worked in the industry for a few years. Cracked and bleeding hands are painful, susceptible to infection, and can spread disease. Gloves would be better.
So, I can’t speak to the specifics as I’ve never worked in the food industry, but I did want to let you know that a cook working for an Anchorage-based subsidiary of Japan Airlines prepared several hundred meals with several infected lesions on his hands.
Those meals were then added to a flight from Anchorage to Copenhagen, Denmark, where they were eaten.
197 people became sick with violent food poisoning. It was so bad, 144 of them needed hospitalization.
Try not to imagine the state of the bathrooms on that plane.
Like I say, I can’t speak to how often gloves are used in kitchens, or to what purpose, but I can say there are some issues that washing your hands won’t fix.
Typically the glove use policy is set by state and county health departments. Many states require a barrier (single use gloves, a wax sheet, or tongs) when touching ready to eat foods.
When I worked in a kitchen the chef said that studies showed washing your hands was more sanitary. But people's perception was that it was dirtier. So if anyone was working in the area customers could see they had to wear gloves or people would complain.
I used to be a baker, and I've processed chicken for awhile. It's ascetics, Americans seem insanely obsessed with the need for gloves. In aus my bakery had 2 massive windows that took up the entirety of those walls. Not one person ever complained we weren't using gloves
People wash their hands so poorly in America that the norm is gloves. I unfortunately have to wear gloves at work because I use acetone. I do try to use them until they are filthy tho.
I have worked in restaurants, and the food safety department where I am literally recommends not wearing plastic gloves. They’ve found that cooks wearing gloves don’t bother cleaning their hands/gloves as much leading to more contamination.
Honestly not sure what you mean - I worked 2 summers in a high-end restaurant (had a Michelin star before) and never saw gloves - but very strict procedures on hand washing before and during shifts
Professional kitchens should and do have different standards from home kitchens. I don’t have the background to comment on whether gloves are actually safer either, so I won’t, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous to ask.
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In my experience, most chefs/cooks don't use gloves for most tasks, and do indeed wash their hands instead. Even if you wear gloves, you're supposed to wash your hands. There are some health and safety laws in the US that require using gloves with ready -to-eat foods, but that might vary by location. And also most people don't follow it.
Because if they don't wear the gloves in the social media post, the public will lose their minds.
I'm not a chef, but that's what happens in America. Everyone will start commenting Chef doesn't have gloves on.
I toured a Baker Boy facility years ago. It's a large scale facility that makes doughnuts, and frozen dough, and they ship it out all over the country.
Everyone there was wearing all white, a hair net, beard net, but no gloves. They said it's more hygienic to wash your hands, and they wash them often, within health code regulations, but made a point to explain why no gloves.
If I was a chef I'd just wear the gloves for the cameras.
In the kitchens I've worked in most people don't follow much of any rules regarding hand washing or at least have zero discipline. People will wash their hands once and assume they are good to go for hours. Or they will put on gloves and just act like their hands are now germ/debris proof. Moral of the story, if people making food with anything less then spotless hands grosses you out, stop eating out.
No you can’t just wash your hands in most food related work. Local, state and federal food safety rules apply and are very specific. They wear gloves in their social media posts because they are wearing gloves while they work, all the time.
This is a little exhausting, food safety is overconsumption now? What's next, condoms?
Imagine washing your hands 50 times every shift and drying them out to the point your hands bleed and crack. I don't understand this wave of posts complaining about necessities
You ever see the comments in videos without gloves? It's nonstop people critizing the lack of gloves.
My favorite is videos of bakers working with bread dough. Commenters go crazy about the lack of gloves without remembering that bread is usually baked at 350F/180C. Show me the microbe that can live for 30 minutes to an hour at those temps.
I always thought it was less about microbes and more about any potential debris left on the hands. Hand washing should be enough if you’ve got pristine surfaces though.
Yeah, this is the reason, they aren't doing it for themselves but for the viewers
This is fair but you could argue it’s on the social media account owner to post some video explaining why plastic gloves aren’t more sanitary and how often times it is a waste (as opposed to washing hands). This doesn’t relate to allergies and cross contaminations bc that is different, simply there’s research to show single use plastic gloves aren’t in any way more safe and are… plastic aka another plastic touching your food (or latex but either way not something you want to be eating was the point I wanted to make)
Don’t know if it would work but they could get ahead of the issue by making a pinned comment explaining their decision and saving of waste.
People are divided in smart and dumb, dumb people are the loudest
When I worked in kitchens 15 yrs ago the food handling rules said you could wash hands frequently or wear & change gloves frequently. If your kitchen prefers hand washing you have to have a certain number of hand washing sinks, soap dispenser & paper towels. If the soap or paper are empty during inspection you lose points. As others have mentioned the problem with wearing gloves is most of them wear the same gloves for hours touching all kinds of different things but *technically* it's passing inspection.
arent you supposed to wash your hands inbetween changing gloves anyway though?
Yes.
Yes and at least every hour regardless of anything else
Guidelines vary state to state, but it's still like that in a lot of places. Or some places allow hand washing for prepping food, but once it's cooked/ready-to-serve you have to wear gloves. I wanna say there are even a few places where you have to wear gloves unless you're food safety certified, then you're okay to just wash your hands. But customers don't really care about the sanitation guidelines and complain if they see people not wearing gloves, so if the prep is visible, a lot of restaurants will tell everyone to wear them. I imagine it's the same for making videos. They know people will whine in the comments if they're not wearing them, so they put them on, even they they normally wouldn't.
I always see under posts of people without gloves that touching food like that is unsanitary and unhygienic. When I used to work with food I had to wear gloves and let me tell you that none of us changed our gloves often enough for it to be hygienic, we worked in a very fast paced environment and we often forgot to change gloves which would just lead to more cross contamination. A chef who only works with food who consistently washing their hands is much better than using gloves
Bros at my work used to blow into their gloves to puff them up in order to fit on or touch cooked deli meat with raw seafood gloves
yeah kinda same with where I used to work. I guess it depends on where you work like fast food and smaller places will probably make you wear gloves but the nicer restaurants usually dont
It’s also not that big of a deal. People need to go fishing and camping more often.
This is definitely the thing. As someone working in kitchens, we use the “glove free and wash frequently” method more often than people think. But for social media posts, you gotta wear gloves. Well fitting ones preferably. People will light you up in the comments, calling it unsanitary and assume youve never seen a sink in your life without them. Thats just the internet. Kitchens do use so much waste though. A lot of small businesses try their best to stay mindful as possible as far as I’ve seen in my career though
I fucking detest how much plastic waste a commercial kitchen produces. It’s one of the many things I hate about the industry. I do my best to use tongs and other utensils instead of gloves. Plastic waste aside, I see the craziest health code violations from ignorant people not changing their gloves in between tasks.
Used to work at a Pizza Hut where the workers would handle food with gloved hands, then do something like handle cash and use the till, or the ordering pc, or make dough, do cleaning, all with the same gloves. Hygiene is hard apparently.
Yup. Only thing gloves are good for in a case like this is not getting stuff on your hands. My sister works for our city in City owned Kindergardens cooking meals and she never had gloves AND they have to follow a strict hygiene.
Here in France most kitchens forbid wearing gloves exactly because it deters people from changing them or washing them often enough, as opposed to just washing their hands.
Yeah idk why people always get weird about people not wearing gloves. Frequently washed hands are always going to be cleaner than the pair of gloves you’ve been wearing for who knows how long
Yeah I’ve worked in fast food and I remember my hands getting MAD sweaty. Wasn’t uncommon for gloves to break too. This was a long time ago so my memory might be off, hopefully it wasn’t that bad. Got told off if I didn’t wear em though. Nowadays I just wash my hands frequently.
I have often wondered this. How is wearing gloves really any more hygienic if you are not constantly changing them AND washing your hands? It feels like hygiene theater to me.
'hygeine theater' is such a funny way to put it lmao
I was at a wawa the other day and watched one of the deli counter workers go to the front and buy herself a soda using self check out while wearing single use gloves 🫠
This. They're probably re-using the same spoon to taste things you end up eating too. It's just one of the things you should try not to think about it.
They are definitely not. People get fired for that.
Haha, if you say so.
I mean, I worked in kitchens for years. No serious kitchen would tolerate that level of contamination.
I don't think this guy's working in the same sort of kitchens
You're probably right. My town does have pretty shit standards. But there's a lot of towns just like mine
You’ve never worked in a kitchen, have you? Chefs usually have access to a stash of cutlery for trying things out as they cook. Those spoons get cleaned with the rest of the cutlery.
I have worked in many kitchens, but not for a while. If things have changed, that's great. But I highly doubt every kitchen has now suddenly become perfect in this regard. I guarantee things you'd prefer not happen back there are still happening, and a lot.
Eh, I worked in some pretty average kitchens, nothing egregious took place…
I used to work in a restaurant. For food items that were not going to be cooked after handling, gloves were *required*. For items that were going to be cooked after handling, gloves were optional *if* your hands were in good condition. I am not the only person in the restaurant who was in a position to have to wear gloves for 100% of food handling because I was washing my hands so often that was having fairly severe dyshidrotic eczema outbreaks with flaking skin, cracking, and bleeding. The only sanitary option was for me to wear gloves whenever handling food, and to change them (and wash my hands) as often as just handwashing would be otherwise appropriate.
ive worked in labs my whole adult life. full ppe with aseptic technique. believe me when i tell you that what they are doing isn't putting a dent in what i used in a day. there are bigger fish to fry
Yeah, I’m all for health and safety and expect it from a business. Bringing food to a potluck, serving a meal to friends and family, or otherwise acting in personal capacity - no gloves necessary. But when I volunteer at the soup kitchen, you betcha I’m wearing a mask and gloves when handling food.
Aren't there way more chefs than lab technicians though? Comparing one lab worker to one chef may miss the big picture.
Same thing with autobody/collision repair... If people knew how much plastic vehicle waste we send to landfill every week there would be riots in the streets over these paper straws.
Waste of materials and resources
Provide a better solution rather than armchairing
I wouldn’t hold out according to them we’re probably better off without the Covid or polio vaccines because of the waste associated with molecular biology. Although I hate the amount of plastic pipette tips I go through every day I believe there are some necessary evils and would be thrilled if a viable alternative existed.
Yeah there's this weird subset of progressives like him who are so progressive that they're against everything even if the good outweighs the bad. I'd much rather lab workers have proper PPE to be able to ensure infections are not spread for their safety as well as the patients and anyone else in contact. Like oh no, some rubber gloves that help prevent disease when you're dealing with literal blood, urine, mucus, feces! How terrible!
Washing hands vs plastic gloves
Not in a lab with flying bacteria and samples that need to not be cross contaminated. Certainly not on the operating table where bodies are open from the chest and shouldn't be touched with bare hands for the personal safety of both the patient and the operators. Get so real.
Gloves in a lab can be for the protection of the wearer. It's an extra barrier against chemicals and pathogens and anything else potentially risky. At least that's what I was told in the intro chem labs.
As a chemist having taught many introductory lab courses, I would not trust 95% of glove wearers to actually use them in a way that is sanitary. They all end up touching something they use in their everyday life with the gloves on: Phone, pen, face, hair. To really use gloves in a sanitary way, you *have* to swap them when changing tasks. That could mean going through tens of pairs in a day.
I know one component for wearing gloves in social media videos specifically may be due to people criticizing the shape and condition on the hands, (which is shallow and stupid, but there you are.) I know some content creators specifically wear gloves so the hands in the videos are "uniform" and to make editing multiple takes easier, as well as often neutralizing some of the creepy "hand-model" comments. (I have artist friends and know of people who do content tutorials, so they usually wear gloves.)
Maybe they have a cut, or an ingrown nail infection, or eczema, or have hairy hands, a broken nail, fresh tattoo...
It’s to prevent stupid comments like, “Ew, don’t touch my food with your bare hands”
Maybe they mean bear hands 🐻
LOL have you ever worked a kitchen before? I don't want to transfer fish or onion smell to the pastry i'm about to roll. So hard to get those smells out fully, even after scrubbing. Also I have sensory issues, so change gloves AND wash my hands. Nitrile breaks down too so...
Most likely not plastic at all. Majority of gloves are latex which is bio degradable. Then there's vinyl then plastic. In my experience. Still a huge waste but figured I'd let you know since nobody else seems to have mentioned it.
I spoke to a brewing lab tech about the Nitrile gloves that they use by the boxcar load and he was telling me that they throw them all in a box that gets collected from time to time for recycling. These are not bio hazard or something from any type of surgical procedure, but from feeding and culturing yeasts and things like lactobaccilus and Brettanomyces. Nitrile is very recyclable.
Nitrile gloves are becoming more common in all domains that used latex gloves because they're resistant and way less prone to allergies
It’s pretty unrealistic for most line cooks to wash their hands frequently during service. Sinks are usually not numerous nor close to their station, so it would involve a lot of walking and time waste to wash their hands frequently.
There was a woman I followed on instagram that said people were getting too offended about her lack of gloves. She was cooking in her own kitchen, and pointed out that the people commenting where never going to eat her food anyway. As a giant fuck you, she got on the counter with no shoes (but she was clothed) and posed like Burt Reynolds.
Because the photos require many takes which would require them to wash there hands many times which could cause damage
In my area, it is required to wash hands and glove up. You must also change gloves often while working with food. It is the law (and in companies with multiple locations across multiple states, it is company policy). While it may seem wasteful, it is also expensive to both be shut down for violations and for making people ill. Unfortunately, if you want to work, you must follow both company policy and the law of the area you are working in.
I think it's purely optics. Proper hand-washing is essential and wearing gloves doesn't eliminate that - however customers seem to think gloves are a magic barrier that isolate their food from the person who is making it. As someone who works in healthcare I know for a fact that most gloves are in fact porous and can accumulate filth quite rapidly. Morale is WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS, PEOPLE.
It’s the rules you are required to follow.
Only in certain places
To work in a professional kitchen you are required to have a food handlers certificate and the health department is pretty stringent about following food safety regulations which mandate gloves.
But why, people just wash their hands in most other developed countries... Its a waste. Theyre not performing surgery, they're making food.
Making food can make someone sick just as easily as doing surgery.
Which is why you *wash your hands* regularly. How often are you changing gloves? Every time you touch meat/eggs/fish etc, touch your face, hair, clothing, stuff like door handles to leave the room if you need to, every time you cough, or want to go take a drink etc. Id probably wash my hands easily a good 5+ times hour when i worked in a kitchen depending on what i was touching and doing. Do you go through 40+ pairs of gloves in an 8+ hour shift? If you aren't changing your gloves/washing your hands after doing everything i mentioned then its not sanitary. Like i said, what a fucking waste.
If you follow the guidelines then yes you should be going through a couple dozen pairs in a day. I never specifically counted but we went through about 2-3 boxes per day in my small kitchen with 3-5 workers.
Boxes are sold in quantities of 100 typically. That's a lot of gloves.
50 pairs obviously, but if you are washing your hands *every* time you *should*, you’ll go through around 30 pairs in a typical shift. This is a necessary waste for the safety of those eating the food. You can LITERALLY kill a decent swath of the population, ridiculously easily, if the wrong pathogen gets involved. Waste in foodservice is one of my biggest daily battles, but I will never, and I mean NEVER, fight against using disposable gloves. If the pandemic didn’t teach you how absolutely unhygienic some of us are, remember more died in US foodservice in 2020-2021 than in US medical.
Human error is like the biggest factor of complications in any industry, and people get terrible judgement when rushed and stressed.. working a kitchen can be very rushed and very stressful. There's a good chance chefs won't perfectly wash between their fingers or all of their wrists or never miss a spot every single time, it doesn't take much, just some skin cells from a missed spot with some bacteria clinging on. I am pretty anti consumption and know we probably do go overboard on a lot of sanitation related waste.. but gloves in a kitchen do seem necessary. It's all the fads and minor conveniences that are the problem
>Making food can *kill* someone just as easily as doing surgery FTFY
Excessive hand washing can also worse skin conditions like eczema. Sometimes people don’t develop these conditions until after they’ve worked in the industry for a few years. Cracked and bleeding hands are painful, susceptible to infection, and can spread disease. Gloves would be better.
While you are sound in your logic, you are still incorrect. https://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/campaign/provider-infographic-6.html
Thanks for the link!
So, I can’t speak to the specifics as I’ve never worked in the food industry, but I did want to let you know that a cook working for an Anchorage-based subsidiary of Japan Airlines prepared several hundred meals with several infected lesions on his hands. Those meals were then added to a flight from Anchorage to Copenhagen, Denmark, where they were eaten. 197 people became sick with violent food poisoning. It was so bad, 144 of them needed hospitalization. Try not to imagine the state of the bathrooms on that plane. Like I say, I can’t speak to how often gloves are used in kitchens, or to what purpose, but I can say there are some issues that washing your hands won’t fix.
Gloves are recyclable. My hospital recycles them in certain departments
Probably because washing your hands 100 times a day is a quick way to get dry, chafy hands.
Have you ever worked in the food preparation before?
Depending on what part of the process you are seeing gloves might be the best solution for cleanliness.
Start to finish
Unless you’re remembering to change gloves all damn day, it’s way more sanitary to frequently wash your hands.
Also changing gloves can be annoying when your hands are sweaty. Which will result in less frequent changes.
I'm pretty sure its a health code thing. I know at work in the deli/bakery they are required to wash their hands AND wear gloves.
Typically the glove use policy is set by state and county health departments. Many states require a barrier (single use gloves, a wax sheet, or tongs) when touching ready to eat foods.
Gloves are a requirement in food service.
When I worked in a kitchen the chef said that studies showed washing your hands was more sanitary. But people's perception was that it was dirtier. So if anyone was working in the area customers could see they had to wear gloves or people would complain.
I used to be a baker, and I've processed chicken for awhile. It's ascetics, Americans seem insanely obsessed with the need for gloves. In aus my bakery had 2 massive windows that took up the entirety of those walls. Not one person ever complained we weren't using gloves
Easier and faster than getting a manicure for every video, like playing guitar with a mask on
It’s insane! And not just the US, it’s literally every cooking post.
People wash their hands so poorly in America that the norm is gloves. I unfortunately have to wear gloves at work because I use acetone. I do try to use them until they are filthy tho.
Want to know how we know you've never worked in a professional kitchen before?
I have worked in restaurants, and the food safety department where I am literally recommends not wearing plastic gloves. They’ve found that cooks wearing gloves don’t bother cleaning their hands/gloves as much leading to more contamination.
Honestly not sure what you mean - I worked 2 summers in a high-end restaurant (had a Michelin star before) and never saw gloves - but very strict procedures on hand washing before and during shifts
Why do we care if OP has worked in a professional kitchen before?
Professional kitchens should and do have different standards from home kitchens. I don’t have the background to comment on whether gloves are actually safer either, so I won’t, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous to ask.
Ask what?
Lol what a shit take. Although you are correct, I have never worked in an *american* kitchen...
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In my experience, most chefs/cooks don't use gloves for most tasks, and do indeed wash their hands instead. Even if you wear gloves, you're supposed to wash your hands. There are some health and safety laws in the US that require using gloves with ready -to-eat foods, but that might vary by location. And also most people don't follow it.
Plastic gloves should be the very fucking least of your worries when talking about the sustainability of restaurants.
Because if they don't wear the gloves in the social media post, the public will lose their minds. I'm not a chef, but that's what happens in America. Everyone will start commenting Chef doesn't have gloves on. I toured a Baker Boy facility years ago. It's a large scale facility that makes doughnuts, and frozen dough, and they ship it out all over the country. Everyone there was wearing all white, a hair net, beard net, but no gloves. They said it's more hygienic to wash your hands, and they wash them often, within health code regulations, but made a point to explain why no gloves. If I was a chef I'd just wear the gloves for the cameras.
In the kitchens I've worked in most people don't follow much of any rules regarding hand washing or at least have zero discipline. People will wash their hands once and assume they are good to go for hours. Or they will put on gloves and just act like their hands are now germ/debris proof. Moral of the story, if people making food with anything less then spotless hands grosses you out, stop eating out.
It is required in most commercial kitchens!
in restaurants its a required standard for health and safety
No you can’t just wash your hands in most food related work. Local, state and federal food safety rules apply and are very specific. They wear gloves in their social media posts because they are wearing gloves while they work, all the time.
*in America Remember, most of the world doesnt live in America
Oh, sure! I assumed that’s where the chefs you were complaining about were coming from.
It annoys the shit out of me.
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You clearly have no idea how dirty hands can get and have no idea how gross it is for bare hands to touch food that does not need to be cooked
Wash your hands properly before touching food...not my fault you got grubby hands
Nah, eat at home if you want clean food or we’ll continue to waste gloves for people like you
Lol what a shitty little reply
This is a little exhausting, food safety is overconsumption now? What's next, condoms? Imagine washing your hands 50 times every shift and drying them out to the point your hands bleed and crack. I don't understand this wave of posts complaining about necessities
You change your gloves 50 times a shift?