Can we wash and re-use cloth gloves worn under vinyl gloves?
We recently had our re-certification SQF audit (92! :happydance: ). We received a minor for employees wearing cloth gloves underneath the vinyl gloves (gloves brought from home) and observing one employee not adhering to our hand washing policy. So we told employees are not allowed to bring gloves into the facility and we have been providing them cloth gloves as "single -use" only. But this has not been cost effective and my boss wants me to see if we could wash them and re-use the gloves. Is that a bad or good idea? need input please help.
We have looked into companies to launder the gloves for us but nothing has worked out so far.
Congratulations on 92. I understand that the cloth gloves if used single time is not economical. Also, if you want to launder them on weekly basis, it is going to be expensive too. I have seen this in my experience. I would suggest you to provide gloves to the employees like a pair of 3 or so to each and ask them to launder themselves when it gets dirty or you can recommend the frequency as required. We have done this and it worked okay. Also, another drawback of people bringing their own glove is the potential risk of foreign matter contamination. I have seen gloves with plastic buttons.
We recently had our re-certification SQF audit (92! :happydance: ). We received a minor for employees wearing cloth gloves underneath the vinyl gloves (gloves brought from home) and observing one employee not adhering to our hand washing policy. So we told employees are not allowed to bring gloves into the facility and we have been providing them cloth gloves as "single -use" only. But this has not been cost effective and my boss wants me to see if we could wash them and re-use the gloves. Is that a bad or good idea? need input please help.
We have looked into companies to launder the gloves for us but nothing has worked out so far.
I don't understand why you got a NC for wearing cloth gloves under vinyl ones ?
IMEX the necessity may depend on what you are doing. Removing meat from whole crabs ?
Cloth gloves can be a fragmentation problem unless suitable item. IMEX can be re-used for certain jobs but may need heavy-duty cleaning/sanitizing.
Personally, I would keep exploring laundry service. It might require a separate bin for collection so that the laundry service can manage to complete in one load and launder separately from smocks. They might also return unmatched (employees would have to sort to find 2 gloves of the same size). I think technically you could buy a washing and drying machine. They would be added to equipment list, PM's, swabbed/inspected at some frequency (they can harborage mold and bacteria) and placed away from a production area. You should also develop a swabbing program for monitoring the cleanliness of the gloves after a washing and drying cycle. Validate the cleaning annually, monitor with routine ATP swabs. Plus, maintenance has one more piece of equipment to learn, maintain, trouble shoot. Could add an additional fire hazard for insurance purposes.
Congratulations on 92. I understand that the cloth gloves if used single time is not economical. Also, if you want to launder them on weekly basis, it is going to be expensive too. I have seen this in my experience. I would suggest you to provide gloves to the employees like a pair of 3 or so to each and ask them to launder themselves when it gets dirty or you can recommend the frequency as required. We have done this and it worked okay. Also, another drawback of people bringing their own glove is the potential risk of foreign matter contamination. I have seen gloves with plastic buttons.
We received a minor several years ago for having the employees bring their own gloves, we had no proof they were being cleaned. Which resulted in furnishing gloves to workers and have them laundered using our laundry service, but than that didn't work either as they very seldom placed the gloves into the basket to have them cleaned and became quite expensive furnishing gloves to everyone. Finally, we have banned the use of gloves except for disposable which we furnish.
We furnish disposable cloth glove liners.