What are ‘surgical gloves’ meant for, the surgery or the kitchen?
For months, I have been watching what happens at restaurants, cafes and the like, in fact anywhere where food is handled. What I have observed causes me to never want to eat out again.
These “wonderful” protective gloves protect no one, other that the wearer. These are just some things that I noted and found disturbing when seeing how food is being handled:
• A wearer will handle veggies, meat, fruit, bread and almost anything whilst wearing these gloves. Surely cross contamination is in play here?
• Those same gloved hands open fridges, drawers, cupboards, grillers, food processors, cardboard boxes and dust bins – you name it!
• And you can bet that should something drop to the floor, it is picked up with the same gloved hands. These gloves seem to be worn until such time they become really tatty and or torn before being replaced!
As for a biltong bar, the sales person will take the biltong to the slicing machine, pick up the “tub” (with the same gloves), push biltong into cutter and let the cuts fall into the tub, which is now placed on the floor! When the cutter is turned off, the cut biltong is scooped into packets for me to take home. I love biltong, but I must say that I am buying less and less for I fear that hygiene is not evident.
Now, how about the breads openly displayed on counters to be handled by passers-by, sneezed on or who know what else. Oh dear!
That’s not all, what about the popcorn sold in movie houses? Have you noted how the sales person will have a box in hand and stretch into the popcorn bin to scoop your corn into the box. I cannot help but wonder how much dust, fluff etc from arms or clothing fall into this supposedly “safe, clean” glass container! Ugh!
I can go on and on and on, but perhaps if we all begin to take note, someone somewhere will come up with a solution. Maybe we should go back to washing the hands frequently throughout the day, and toss the gloves! What is the solution?
MAUREEN LESSER
Ballito
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