Auditing Glove Use

Most food workers know the basics of glove use, but the real question is “What do they actually do?”  We recommend that managers/supervisors take time to audit glove use practices in their operation.  This is a way to check that staff are doing what they are supposed to be doing to keep the food safe by using gloves correctly.

FoodHandler® has a glove audit form on their website that you could use for making these observations.  This form could be used on a quarterly basis to document the good behaviors (catch people doing things right!) and to identify corrective actions needed.

Audit Managerial Practices

The first step is to make sure employees have the tools they need. Start by checking whether or not you are providing the gloves that workers need.  Ask yourself:

  1. Are there appropriate sizes of gloves available for your staff?
  2. Is there more than one type of glove available (nitrile, vinyl, etc.)?  Some employees may have sensitivities to one type of glove, but not to another.  Also, there are more and more states banning the use of latex gloves in foodservice because of latex allergies.
  3. Are gloves located in the work stations where needed?  Make it easy for food workers to follow the standard operating procedures for glove use.
  4. Is there a glove dispensing system that protects gloves from contamination?  These systems are convenient and cost effective, and they reduce opportunities for gloves to become contaminated.  Check out our FoodHandler OneSafe® dispensers if you haven’t already.

Audit Employee Glove Use Practices

Now you can observe food workers in their daily activities to determine actual glove-use practices. Pick a typical day of operations. If you plan to compare audits over time, then choose a consistent day with the same menu. There are a few other suggestions for use of the audit on the form. General observation points include:

  1. Are employees always wearing gloves when handling ready-to-eat foods?
  2. Are they changing gloves between tasks?
  3. Are new gloves being used when returning to work stations?
  4. Are gloves always worn over bandages on hands?
  5. Are gloves changed at least once every four hours if  one continuous task is being performed?
  6. Are workers washing hands properly before putting on gloves?
  7. Are gloves removed from the dispenser one at a time?
  8. Are gloves handled only by the cuff?
  9. Are gloves removed from hands and boxes properly to minimize contamination?

New employees need to be trained on expectations for glove use.  Managers can make observations of glove use on a continual basis and make adjustments as needed.  Some staff may need reminders of proper use or a manager may discover certain types or sizes of gloves are used more frequently. Managers can use this information as a performance indicator (see our blog in May with some tools about KPIs or key performance indicators). Management by walking around lets you as the person in charge know what is really happening in your operations.  Risk Nothing!

Foodborne Illness Myths & Facts

“It must have been something I ate.”  That’s the typical statement when a person develops some relatively minor symptoms from food.  Maybe not severe enough to go to the doctor so you choose to tough it out without medical care.  Sudden onset of flu-like symptoms such as onset of stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever could possibly mean you are the victim of a foodborne illness.   The illness is sometimes referred to as “food poisoning”, but it’s often misdiagnosed.

Don’t Compromise: Clean and Sanitize

The subject is cleaning and sanitizing. Chefs, food service directors, managers and staff try to practice safe food-handling at every turn in the kitchen. Don’t let that effort go down the drain by slacking off on the many aspects of sanitation. That includes dish and ware-washing techniques (pots, pans, equipment), and cleaning all the areas that give us that “neat as a pin” appearance in your customers eyes. Customers seldom fail to bring that soiled silverware or glass with lipstick on it to the attention of the manager or wait staff. Improperly cleaning and sanitizing of food contact equipment does allow transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to food and ultimately our customer.

The Route to Safer Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Although fruits and vegetables are one of the healthiest foods sources in our diet, we continue to have foodborne disease outbreaks of significance from produce, sometimes affecting large groups of people in multiple states because of their wide distribution. The CDC estimates that fresh produce now causes a huge number of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. Produce needs our continued food safety efforts at the restaurant level as well as at the stages in agricultural production. Occasionally, fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated with harmful bacteria or viruses, such as Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, Norovirus, and Hepatitis A. This contamination can occur at any point from the field to our table. If eaten, contaminated fruits and vegetables can cause foodborne illness.

Be Cool, Chill Out, Refrigerate Promptly!

The Cold Chain -- Keeping perishable foods at proper cold holding temperatures (between 28°F and 41°F maximum or 0°F for frozen food) from your food producers / manufacturers to your customers has to be one of our strongest links to safe food and high quality.   Sometimes that is referred to in the food industry as “maintaining the COLD CHAIN”.  Any slip ups in the cold chain, and we have a weak link.  Most all of our state food regulations require 41°F as a cold maximum, but colder is a “best practice” policy to maintain.