On the one hand, I agree with you that clean hands are better than plastic gloves.

On the other hand, and I say this as a former food worker , I have seen too many people be lax about handwashing to feel fully comfortable with the state of their hands' hygiene.

I feel the same way, how do you really know how CLEAN the hands are? If they wash very often then okay. But we never know. I'd rather see gloves I think.

GLOVES GLOVES GLOVES

fast food places yes! however I think that a chef would wash and have super clean hands considering their passion for cooking.

even if they did wear gloves how do you know that the gloves are clean?

I think its safer with gloves. But sometimes its just goofy.

there are gloves that fit to your hand's shape and there are big, baggy gloves that no one should wear when doing anything b/c it's impossible. i had to wear the big, baggy gloves at a church cafeteria once and i couldn't do a THING! the gloves kept slipping off. so yeah, if you're going to give your workers gloves like that, why bother? get the gloves that fit...the kind that doctors use!

I am way too much of a germ-a-phobe to tolerate someone not wearing gloves and serving me food...i think it should be mandatory in all cases.

I think not?

I have a bit of Mysophobia. I can't even eat the samples at the bakery because they are out where anyone can breathe on them or touch them. I not only want them to wear gloves, but I want them to change thm frequently.

I always question the workers cleanliness, especially after being served by the same person who had just taken my money...no handwashing involved either. *shivers* Money is gross!

I say no. I have been a food service worker, one place did not require glovse, one place did. People who wore gloves didn't feel lit necessary to wash their hands, and your hands sweat, get gross in the gloves. also, it makes food handling difficult.

I also am a certified food safety worker by the state, and know that handwashing is important and is good enough. and, okay, lets say john q. worker makes your pizza but does wash his hands...the 500 degree oven is going to kill those germs. MOST times people get sick from food borne illnesses which have nothing to do with hand washing.

I meant to say that he doesn't wash his hands...

Gloves, people don't wash after handling money or cards....it can be very gross.

yah, hands would be fine if people actually washed them well, but I don't trust every teenage kid thats making my food to scrub his hands like a surgeon before he touches it. plus, if you're wearing gloves you're less likely to reach up and wipe your brow, touch your hair, scratch your nose, or any other little things that people usually do without even thinking about it.

As long as they are cleaning their hands properly before handling the food I think the gloves are unnecessary.

gloves and please use tongs whenever possible.

gloves are great but too many people leave them on while doing other things.

When I worked for a gourmet catering service for a college we'd use plastic gloves for meats and eggs. Everything else we washed our hand enough times that all of us had cracked hands. Man when we'd put anti-bacterial gel our hands our just burn! So while not everyone in the food service does wear gloves, the others are washing their hands like crazy. Now granted this doesn't apply to fast food and Starbucks, those people should be wearing gloves.

Hears my point you can't depend on the people to wash there hands... I was at target and ordered something to eat the server had on one glove ....he took the persons in front of me money and gave her change. Then made my food with the hand that he counted the money in. So I said something to him and he could not see where I would have a issue with that.

I have to say something. I realize there are lot s of OCD people who don't want anything touching their body that isn't sterilized (which is why these people throw their paper towels to hold the bathroom door when leaving in the floor-so sanitary by the way), but you are not going to get sick from someone touching your food after handling money 9.5 times out of 10. Unless you have a immune problem. Sure, after the bathroom its an issue, but seriously! My friends that use antibacterial stuff, and are germ freaks, get sick as often as I do, and I do not wash my hands after i touch everything. And I don't use antibacterial stuff cause it grosses me out.

As a former manager of a Starbucks like coffee shop - GLOVES. And at that it is still a mystery to me how people don't think about what they are touching with the glove. Starbucks buys those big baggy gloves b/c they fit everyone and are cheaper than the latex or rubber gloves.

If you are wearing gloves that is great, but don't touch your head, hair, nose, or god forbid the horrible apron! Which by the way don't get washed, and they are traded all amongst the baristas! I used to take them home myself in two piles and wash them for my employees!

I think a chef in a restaurant is a different story than the local coffee shop, fast food place or diner. They are professionals, so they should know.

Yep

Of course they should. They do have different types of plastic gloves. Of course the cheap ones are the one size fit's all slippery plastic ones. The more expensive ones are like the ones doctors use.

It completely depends on the situation and the food. And this is coming from a girl with a very, very low immune system. I do believe as a society we are getting a little too hung up on germs. (Please don't throw things at me!)People are constantly scrubbing with anti-bacterial soap when it actually does more harm than good. However, I will say there are definitely times where we really need to be concerned about what we come in contact with and how we get clean afterward.

We have the right not to engage in unprotected food consumption.

Just like anything- it depends on how it's implemented. If people can't take the time to wash their hands, there's no indication that they will take the gloves on and off as needed and they'll just wear them for everything that they're doing.

Also, it's a bad idea to wear latex gloves (the nice fitting kind that the doctors use) when preparing food for the public because so many people have allergies to it. My best friend's mother has to call every restaurant before she eats at it to ensure that they do not use latex gloves in the kitchen. She learned this lesson the hard way- she went into anaphylactic shock after eating some vegetables that were cut up by a worker wearing latex gloves. Vinyl gloves or a neoprene based glove works well, but they are either too floppy on the hand or too expensive, respectively.

when i read the headline i was like YEAH what a stupid question! but now that you mention the difficulty, i see your point. hmm...but how do we know workers will constantly wash their hands?

haha, except for people who are allergice to neoprene (me) haha. I guess everyting is allergic to someone. My lips and tongue swell up after i get a mean rash and then i continue to deteriorate further frmo there. kind of like Paris haha.

amandaaa, you can go online and look up what health score the restaurant you want to eat at has. in Virginia, if it is not an "A" then all the critical violations are listed online for all to see. Health inspectors can be sneaky about checking to see if your hands are washed, so if a restaurant gets an "A" rating, for the most part people are diong what they are supposed to.

Glove do a great job of making people (customers) feel better - myself included. That is until I see the person wearing the gloves, handle money, open or closer a drawer......basically touch anything other than the food or a plate and the gloves are now no cleaner than your hands.
lovely.

everyone should just use tongs

I work in the food service business and gloves are not necessary. Hand washing however, is obviously mandatory several times.

Wear gloves and change them OFTEN!! It grosses me out at places where they don't wear gloves, especially fast food places: One minute they are handling cash (money is soooo dirty) the next they're filling up your fry container and drink...ewww!

This is going to sound meaner than intended, but- anyone who has to ask that question has obviously never worked in food service.

And one thing no one's mentioned- cuts and scrapes on your hands, warts, brittle fingernails, etc. Those little finger condoms and bandaids don't work, because you still have to wash your hands, and then the bandaids fall off. Whenever I've had to wear a bandaid at work, I end up washing my hands LESS, bc it turns into a hassle. And since it's nearly impossible to monitor who has a papercut, and it's mean to say "you have to wear gloves bc you have REALLY hairy knuckles" (you think I'm kidding- but would you want knuckle hair in your sandwich?), it's just better to make gloves the standard. Companies should just suck it up and fork over the money for gloves that fit- we always had disposable gloves in three sizes.

And I think it should be mandatory for places that deal only with cooked food, too- I worked at Domino's, and, man, we weren't very sanitary. When you can fall back on "the 500 degree oven will kill everything" (not mocking cravinsugar- we really used to say that!), you tend to be reeeeeally lax about hand washing.

Gosh, this was long.

Gloves come in small, medium, and large in the health care industry, I'm pretty sure it's not restricted to just us nurses and doctors. So. Yes, I absolutely think food servers should wear gloves.

Gloves, hair nets, I would prefer face masks and that is ridiculous. For these reasons, I eat at home and take food on the go as much as possible.

JessBear, I have worked food service, and don't think gloves are necessary EXCEPT for those who handle food AFTER it is cooked. Before it doesn't matter because the germs are killed during the cooking process. Why do you think you can't eat raw chicken without getting sick? Because you have to cook it, to a minimum of 165 degrees F for atleast 15 seconds to kill the salmonella. I know this sounds silly, but the Health Department in your state has a predetermined set of temperatures all food has to be cooked to in order to kill germs, etc. After is is cooked is when the gloves need to come on...like at Subway.

of course.

I think in the case where food is mass produced yes. Like a busy resturaunt like Friday's or Olive Garden. But like Starbucks, think about it if you are supposed to wash your hands every twenty minutes for twenty seconds, including when you sneeze, go the bathroom, smoke, etc, it would seem that the workers hands are cleaner than sometimes ours. And I have seen the patron walk out of the bathroom without washing their hands, considering that I have washed my hands twice before I have made another drink. (in the bathroom and again at the bar) So I honestly think in a somewhat small place like Starbucks if they touched it with their hands, it would be ok, as long as they didn't sneeze or something gross before. And half the time you can visabiliy see them wash their hands with and exposed kitchen like that.

And on another note how clean are the hands that touch the gloves they put on their hands? Not to be a complete germaphob, but if we are looking at how clean the hands are, did they wash their hands before they put them into the gloves and if not, does it even matter anymore since they are about to croos contaminate my food with the nasty that is on the gloves?