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

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> 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....

How do gloves keep CROSS-Contamination down to a minimum? Certainly if you
change gloves between touching different kinds of food, yes. But you have
only to visit your friendly local subway to see that changing gloves
between sandwiches doesn't reduce cross-contaminiation.

What gloves do is reduce the risk of contaminating the food with human
germs, because human skin doesn't touch the food.

If you do not change your gloves between tasks-- or between handling
foods-- you have cross-contaminated just as surely as if you moved a spoon
from one dish to another, or cut asparagus on a cutting board used for
onions.

> 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.

Make arrangements to have handwashing available. That's why good
commercial kitchens have handwashing sinks to be used for that only.
My brother, who works in Catering, says, "You just wash your hands a lot,
and then you go home and slather on high-quality lotion."


-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken
places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and
the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these
you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
-- E. Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms