Hand Condoms For Food Preparers Mandated In California
Sorry, but was there some rash of food poisonings we haven't heard about? People eat at restaurants constantly in the state of California and the entire state isn't sick in bed or puking in a bucket.
Betty Hallock writes for the LA Times about a new law in California forcing chefs and food preparers to wear gloves:
Many chefs are up in arms about having to wear gloves while cooking, in accordance with a new food safety law that goes into effect over the next six months.The new law bans bare-handed contact with many kinds of foods, but some chefs say the law is confusing, ineffective, bad for the environment and can compromise a final dish.
"The band-aid of a blanket glove regulation is potentially dangerous," says Neal Fraser, chef-owner of BLD restaurant and Fritzi Dog. "People get into the tendency to not wash their hands. And environmentally it's very unfriendly. It's funny that at the same time L.A. institutes a plastic bag ban, there's this."
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that made changes to the California Retail Food Code in an effort to curtail foodborne illnesses, and those changes include a law that says "food employees shall not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands."
That means cooks must wear single-use gloves or use utensils when handling food such as sushi, bread, fresh fruit and vegetables and any cooked components of dishes that will be plated for customers.
"For the most part I use gloves throughout my whole preparation process," said Niki Nakayama, the chef of N/naka who makes sushi as part of her Japanese kaiseki-like meals, "and I have no problem wearing gloves for plating something. I'm on the fence about the cleanliness of gloves all the time."
But most important for her, "making sushi is incredibly hard to do with gloves on. No. 1, the rice is so sticky, the rice would stick to the gloves undoubtedly. Plus you lose that sense of feel, which is everything in sushi making. You have to know exactly the right pressure to put on ingredients. Wearing a glove would hurt the product."
A comment from the LAT site:
LBEastsider:So I see less cleanliness all the way around.
1. Less hand washing since wearing gloves will give workers a false sense that their hands are clean.
2. They glove up with dirty hands, only to re-glove with dirty hands reaching into the boxes of gloves to pull out a new pair and put them on. Thereby spreading germs from dirty hands to clean gloves.
How does any of this make our food safer?
Another comment:
Banana Cream PieHuman hands have been preparing human food for as long as there have been human beings. All off a sudden we must wear bubble suits lest we breathe the same air?
This law just means that inspectors can fine, fine, fine any restaurant they want completely out of business.
A person who is unclean with their hands, will remain unclean with gloves.
Gloves will be great if you are trying to protect your HANDS from being contaminated while working... but to expect they will greatly improve food safety, which I wasn't aware was a giant problem, might be a bit of a stretch.
Nick Weerts at January 12, 2014 10:06 AM
The more items on the checklist for the restaurant food safety inspector, the greater the possibility, that a real health hazard will be missed, or dismissed.
Isab at January 12, 2014 10:49 AM
All of these regulation are not meant to improve food safety. That's like Teacher's union exist to educate children. They want more power to intrude your daily lives, and to get bribe for the food inspectors.
BigFire at January 12, 2014 11:47 AM
What Nick just said: I have seen too many people who wear gloves in their line of work and somehow or other they think because they are wearing gloves everything is okay.
Yet, they don't change their gloves as they go from one patient to the next or from one source of potential contamination to what should be a clean area.
I once watched a deli worker at my local supermarket pick up some meat that she had just dropped on the floor. It was slippery and she had a hard time picking it up - her gloved hand did touch the floor. Now, at least she threw the meat away - but, she didn't change her gloves until her manager, who happened to be standing there, told her!
The one commenter has it right - gloves give a false sense of cleanliness to some folks.
Charles at January 12, 2014 12:21 PM
I agree with Charles. Hand washing is what needs regulation, if anything. People wearing gloves get sloppy. Gloves get dirty the same way hands do but glove wearers are less likely to change gloves than to wash their hands. This law will put more people at risk.
Ray at January 12, 2014 2:27 PM
My favourite is watching a one gloved employee reaching for money and giving change with their gloved hand, then going straight back to the food. Money is the dirtiest thing imaginable other than actually shitting in the food. But the epidemic of food poisoning doesn't seem to happen. Just take off the damn glove, which isn't impressing me or making me feel better, and keep your hands clean!
The one glove theory is that you glove your off hand (left for most - if you're like me, reverse it) to actually touch the food, leaving your right free to handle knives, pick up plates, oh and of course handle money. Never works in practice. We survive somehow
Ltw at January 12, 2014 4:37 PM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2191162/Hygienic-No-doctors-rubber-gloves-infect-superbug.html
&
Dr Sheldon Stone has just reaffirmed what we have known for a number of years. A study was done by Professor Peter Wilson, UCLH, where he showed that various forms of latex gloves would actually hold bacteria on their surface allowing transfer to other objects, including the patient. The study showed quite clearly that there is no substitute for good, consistent hand hygiene between patients, and following the five moments of hand hygiene, which involves the area around where the patient is treated, as bacteria are also found in the immediate vicinity of the patient on high touch areas. Its been over seven years since the launch of the cleanyourhands campaign encouraging medical staff to wash their hands, what an irony that we are still discussing this today. Those of us at the national charity MRSA Action UK have given this information to those in government, both past and present, what a shame they haven't acted on it and dealt with those medics who persistently skip hand washing.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2191162/Hygienic-No-doctors-rubber-gloves-infect-superbug.html#ixzz2qEweqopU
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mmm at January 12, 2014 6:04 PM
Ltw: "Money is the dirtiest thing imaginable other than actually shitting in the food."
That should be taken more literally than most people think. Years ago I worked in health services in a big jail. You would not believe some of the places where the guards found people hiding money. And they don't wash it or keep it separate from the other money. It just goes right back into circulation. Some of it may very well end up in the till at the sushi shop.
I suppose wearing gloves would be as clean as hand washing if food preparers wash their gloved hands as often as they should wash their ungloved hands (i.e. in between each plate, or in between each customer; immediately after touching money, trash containers, their dick). And it's important that they wash their hands after removing a pair of gloves, before touching the next pair of gloves.
Otherwise, the purpose of wearing gloves is to keep your hands from being contaminated by the things you touch.
Ken R at January 12, 2014 10:16 PM
I work on ultraviolet instruments for space telescopes. When assembling equipment, people have to be masked, gowned and gloved. But here's the thing: you absolutely have to train people in proper procedure or they will contaminate the gloves. We train students in the lab rigorously and they go out into other jobs and come back shocked at how lax most people are. You touch your glasses--new gloves. (And for God's sake, don't put your glasses on the hardware when you take them off, as one tech did in our project.) You touch the bare part of your face--new gloves. My favorite story was when my colleague pointed out to an engineer at a certain federal lab that he had a gap between his glove and his gown, exposing bare skin. The guy threw a hissy fit, acting like this was way overblown. And this is while standing next to an $80M piece of equipment that is acutely sensitive to both particulate and molecular contaminants.
But I digress. What is apparent is that California and NYC are in some sort of race to see who can enact the worst set of social laws. NYC was doing well with banning e-cigs and turning on carriage horses, but this one may put CA back in front.
Astra at January 13, 2014 5:36 AM
Astra: "What is apparent is that California and NYC are in some sort of race to see who can enact the worst set of social laws."
LOL, I guess rather than getting upset at some of this insanity I would be better off viewing it as a spectator sport - sort of like the gladiators of ancient Rome - who is going to kill off who first? Except sooner or later I know they will come after us.
Charles at January 13, 2014 7:10 AM
I never thought I'd see the day when food safety was given the same filthy treatment as the TSA affords our genitals.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 13, 2014 1:51 PM
Well, you never know when Typhoid Mary will come looking for work.
Patrick at January 13, 2014 5:28 PM
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