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Poll: Which is Safest Gloves or Handwashing (305 member(s) have cast votes)

Gloves or Handwashing

  1. Gloves (52 votes [17.05%])

    Percentage of vote: 17.05%

  2. Handwashing (237 votes [77.70%])

    Percentage of vote: 77.70%

  3. Unsure (16 votes [5.25%])

    Percentage of vote: 5.25%

Vote Guests cannot vote
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Dr Vu

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Posted 10 November 2016 - 07:45 PM

To quote one  food guru...

 

' wear gloves  only when doing non-food related activities like using the toilet.. for everything else, wash'


A vu in time , saves nine

Charles.C

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Posted 05 December 2016 - 12:00 PM

To quote one  food guru...

 

' wear gloves  only when doing non-food related activities like using the toilet.. for everything else, wash'

 

Hi Dr Vu,

 

Alternatively - One Man's guru is another .......

 

Maybe the summary of 76 Posts, even if the Poll thinks otherwise ;) .


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


duskdiyebiri

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Posted 05 December 2016 - 12:37 PM

To quote one  food guru...

 

' wear gloves  only when doing non-food related activities like using the toilet.. for everything else, wash'

interesting application but looking good  :rock:



FurFarmandFork

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Posted 05 December 2016 - 02:36 PM

I would always vote handwashing...if the infrastructure is there to support good behaviors. There are a lot of examples in this thread of excellent handwashing infrastructure, which can be harder to have in a legacy building.

 

We've got a lot of employees working on catwalks etc. that are product contact, but the nearest handwashing station is down some stairs and another 15 yards because that's where the sewage line is. In situations like these the ability to change gloves (and sanitize them) is the only way to get effective compliance without having to figure out how to install a drop sink from the ceiling and hold a tank of grey water that needs to be emptied every shift, creating still another potential harborage/contamination point.

 

There's a long-term plan to get the needed facilities and utilities in there, but for now, gloves are the best tool for these areas.


Austin Bouck
Owner/Consultant at Fur, Farm, and Fork.
Consulting for companies needing effective, lean food safety systems and solutions.

Subscribe to the blog at furfarmandfork.com for food safety research, insights, and analysis.

Sanitation

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Posted 22 October 2017 - 08:15 PM

Where direct contact food packaging is handled the BRC Global Standard - Food Packaging does not require gloves to be worn. However, in the best practice guidelines it does say that if gloves are worn they should be replaced regularly, should be disposable, blue in colour, and be intact and not shed fibres.

So really we are talking about disposable blue latex gloves or similar.

What I wanted to know is which method is the safest Gloves or Handwashing? Pros and cons of each.

Comments please.

Regards,
Simon

Simon,

 

It is my opinion that both are vital when handling food contact surfaces, or packaging materials.  I like the policy that employees wear gloves when handling food contact surfaces and replace them anytime they pick something up off of the floor, handle a hose, or anything else that might contaminate the surface of the glove.

Hand washing is vital also, anytime a person picks something up off of the floor, replace gloves, but in between taking the old ones off and replacing them, wash your hands. 



afcbno1fan

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Posted 24 October 2017 - 10:41 AM

In my experience nothing replaces effective hand washing. The issue with gloves is two fold. Firstly, they represent a foreign body risk and secondly people seem to think they don't need to wash their hands if they are wearing gloves. There seems to be a common theme where individuals think they are protecting themselves from the food rather than vice versa



Charles.C

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Posted 03 January 2018 - 07:30 AM

In my experience nothing replaces effective hand washing. The issue with gloves is two fold. Firstly, they represent a foreign body risk and secondly people seem to think they don't need to wash their hands if they are wearing gloves. There seems to be a common theme where individuals think they are protecting themselves from the food rather than vice versa

 

Questionable.

 

Maybe see the posts ca. 2007. :smile:


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


afcbno1fan

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Posted 03 January 2018 - 11:47 AM

Hi Charles,

 

having read back through the earlier posts I still stand by what I said but I can only go on personal experience 

 

kind regards

 

Andy



immortal

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Posted 05 July 2018 - 06:13 PM

If possible i would never let the use of gloves. As they are;

- Anti hygienic,

- Foreign body source

- Cost

- Can not be completely under control

- Makes extra waste

- All day bacteria growth enter and contaminate all day product with an increasing number of bacteria

- Cant know where people touch with gloves

- May make workers think like: their hands dont get dirty so they can touch any place 


Kind regards,

Nothing is perfect, just try to improve ...

 

https://foodsector.net/


Vladimir Surcinski

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Posted 06 July 2018 - 05:04 PM

So after reading of sooo many posts about handwash I still think that there is one step important and this is performance of risk analysis on gloves/no gloves. This should be done for each specific production and process and through some logical way decision should be explained.
Handwashing is must, gloves can be desided through the risk analysis.

What do you all think?

BR,
Vladimir

Poslato sa WAS-LX1 uz pomoć Tapatoka



Charles.C

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Posted 30 July 2018 - 09:26 PM

So after reading of sooo many posts about handwash I still think that there is one step important and this is performance of risk analysis on gloves/no gloves. This should be done for each specific production and process and through some logical way decision should be explained.
Handwashing is must, gloves can be desided through the risk analysis.

What do you all think?

BR,
Vladimir

Poslato sa WAS-LX1 uz pomoć Tapatoka

 

Hi Vladimir,

 

Everything depends on Risk Assessment. :smile:

 

At least in US/Retail the answer is Regulatory (Food Code). (Hopefully via RA).


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Scampi

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Posted 30 May 2019 - 02:12 PM

The other thing that has not been mentioned (I don't think :)) is just how clean the gloves are when they are put on and whether or not employees are washing and/or sanitizing the gloved hands before commencing work


Please stop referring to me as Sir/sirs


Ryan M.

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Posted 31 May 2019 - 02:22 AM

In my experience nothing replaces effective hand washing. The issue with gloves is two fold. Firstly, they represent a foreign body risk and secondly people seem to think they don't need to wash their hands if they are wearing gloves. There seems to be a common theme where individuals think they are protecting themselves from the food rather than vice versa

 

 

Questionable.

 

Maybe see the posts ca. 2007. :smile:

 

I agree with afcbno1fan....gloves tend to give people a false sense of security with their hand hygiene.  All it takes is observations of personnel wearing gloves.  I have seen this time and again.  I would rather rid our facility of glove use altogether, but there'd be no buy in from other management on this.



duronluisa

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Posted 26 September 2019 - 07:59 AM

Still do handwashing using a anti-bacterial soap and apply afterwarsd alcohol/disinfectant.

Use nitrile gloves during production.

Use alcohol/disinfectant on a regular basis during work (like every 30 mins).



iankavan

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Posted 26 November 2019 - 04:38 PM

Hand washing beats glove wearing. The wearing of gloves makes the operators think their hands are always clean. 

 

With glove wearing they have to be changed regularly and sanitised. But over sanitising and not changing could lead to transfer of the sanitiser to the product. 

 

I have had this happen once before. 



QM-OS

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Posted 26 May 2020 - 06:00 AM

We have to allow gloves. Temperature in production is low as we handle frozen goods.



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Posted 06 May 2022 - 11:35 AM

I worked in a factory that required glove use, minus the cheesemakers who had to do sensory evaluations. People washed their hands when entering the rooms and we had several hand dip stations around any food handling areas where employees would touch finished product. (These included sanitizers and chlorine.) People would routinely dip their gloved hands in these buckets and sanitize their hands frequently. Because the gloves were on, we found it safe because dipping your gloved hands in sanitizer was easier, safer, and people didn't have to worry about their hands drying out too much. It became second nature for people.

It worked well for us. 

 

My current place doesn't requires hand washing and frequent sanitizing, but we usually have people wearing  gloves when handling inclusions in the ice cream because we don't want cookie pieces to get under someone's fingernails and the employees don't want that either. It's going to be hard to even try and implement a glove policy in the future if it comes down to it. 

 

It really depends on the food safety culture you have. If implemented well and you have the resources to allow for frequent glove dipping stations. I think that is the safer option. Why not use both?



jay2023

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Posted 12 February 2024 - 09:47 PM

I would make gloves optional and available to staff, if they are handling cold/messy ingredients not many people would be willing to do that long term without gloves.

 

Regarding FB risk I have seen pieces ripped off, gloves ending up in ingredients and machinery and going through cutters making a mess. if staff use two pairs of gloves then put their hands in soft ingredients the second glove can get pulled off without them noticing and get torn to pieces by machinery, ruining a whole batch.

 

Gloves can still harbour and transfer pathogens, the focus should be on good GMP practices



lordazzo13

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Posted 13 February 2024 - 04:28 PM

I have been against getting rid of nitrile gloves until I did a bit of research. Our company was using a vinyl/nitrile glove for direct food contact handling. Recently we switched to a full nitrile glove due to the hybrid glove breaking apart easily and getting into our food contact clamshell for retail bakery market. This is a food safety risk for our customers.

 

But I'm not convinced that even nitriles are the best option. Nitriles DO give a sense of false security. I catch people doing all kinds of things with them on. Using cell phones, moving from working with food contact parts to pallets, picking up items off the floor, and so on. I am a firm believer that they will do the exact same thing without the gloves, and handwashing with supplemental hand sanitizer use is the way to go. You just have to have a way for employees to get their hands clean NEAR and convienient to their workstations.

 

I am developing a risk assessment that is going to be impenetrable by an auditor, and along with that our companies environmental policy will play into that. Our company consumes and DOES NOT recycle over 442,800 single use gloves in one year (did the math). I can't even imagine what that looks like in a landfill. Plus, it takes these gloves over 200 years to decompose in a landfill. Magnify THAT times 10 years, and we're just one company.

 

You may as well just be transparent and say, "I couldn't give 2 craps about the environment, it's easier to manage nitrile gloves in our plant." It's EVERY companies responsibility to take consumer safety and their environmental responsibility seriously. I am pushing this forward in our company like a Mack truck through abrick wall, and I'm taking no prisioners. 

 

I suggest the rest of you consider this as well.



lordazzo13

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Posted 13 February 2024 - 04:28 PM

I would highly suggest companies do a risk assessment for the removal of nitrile glove use in their GFSI scheme audit as well.


Edited by lordazzo13, 13 February 2024 - 04:29 PM.




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