[Sca-cooks] Re: Safety (now catering gloves)

[Kirsten Houseknecht]

as i have said.. sufficient hand washing with clean water (or fair water as
the old books put it) is sufficient for most duties.

the problem comes with people who  (and i have been guilty myself before) go
out to "check on something"  and contact a lot of potentially contaminated
surfaces.. and go back to cook.........

gloves are an easy way to keep cross contamination down to a minimum, so
when food allergies and such is an issue gloves are easier than hand
washing....

when its just a question of not getting any environmental or disease
contaminents in the food... then washing is sufficient.  IF done regularly
and thouroughly.

i will state that gloves do allow for a situation where there is no easy way
to keep washing up.... many of the kitchens i have been in have one sink..
and prior to feast its being used for FOOD washing and not available for
hand washing.. at least not easily.. and going out to a crowded bathroom
(with everyone changing clothes) to wash up more than once can be hard to
manage.

so wash up before cooking, and there after wear gloves.. usually is very
efficient.

now in a related issue

1. do all of you have some item of garb and/or clothing that is visisble for
crossing parking lots and such (yes i sell reflective trim, but you can make
due with a white tabard)  all the hand washing in the world doesnt keep you
from getting run over.

2. do you check to make sure that the kitchen has a GOOD first aid kit handy
at all times? and good means that it has multiple pairs of non latex gloves
and a CPR sheild.  plus a lot of bandages and burn treatments and such for
the universal bane of kitchens  the burn and cut hazard.

3. do you bring extra pot holders?  a shortage of pot holders and so on
makes for a higher burn hazard.. Alton Brown recomends that you go to the
hardware store and buy welders gloves, but even a little quilted square of
heat resistant stuff helps.
Kirsten
kirsten at fabricdragon.com
http://www.fabricdragon.com

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