In the U.S., there are hundreds of millions of gloves used every day in medical and food settings. When people wear them, they are taking an action intended to protect the safety of their task. But what if this assumption of safety is misplaced? In a recent podcast promoted by Food Safety Magazine, food safety experts Francine Shaw and Matt Regusci interviewed Steve Ardagh, the CEO and Founder of Eagle Protect, about how regulations governing glove safety haven’t caught up with reality. Ardagh said FDA food compliance as it relates to gloves only focuses on chemical migration – not whether the gloves are actually clean or intact out of the box. Five years ago, Ardagh began working with the microbiologist Barry Michaels, who has researched glove and hand cleanliness extensively, to test the safety of gloves coming into the U.S. market. He said tests of 2800 gloves from 26 brands of medical and food-compliant gloves found that more than 50 percent of test samples had indicators of fecal matter, as well as 260 additional pathogens including E. coli, salmonella and listeria. Subsequently, they developed a test process to make sure the gloves reaching the U.S. have a good standard of cleanliness. It’s troubling news and underlines the importance of personal hygiene – and not relying on other products as a first line of defense when it comes to protecting food safety. Even if your staff is careful about cleaning and sanitizing food preparation surfaces, poor personal hygiene can drag down your restaurant’s food safety – or at least your guests’ perception of it. Transferring pathogens from one’s body – particularly hands – to food is the leading cause of foodborne-illness outbreaks at restaurants, according to the National Restaurant Association. Neglecting personal hygiene significantly increases the chances of transferring harmful pathogens onto food. Soiled uniforms, long hair that isn’t tied back away from the face, untrimmed nails, perspiration and jewelry can all contribute to the problem. Does your employee policy adequately cover personal hygiene practices? Consider fine-tuning standards around laundering uniforms before a shift, where to store soiled items so they don’t come into contact with food, how to keep long hair away from food, what jewelry is acceptable to wear while working, and where personal items should be stored during a shift. Break times that give staff an opportunity to refuel can also help ensure your team members present themselves well in front of guests – particularly in hot weather. Just make sure that any food or drink they consume is kept away from food preparation areas and equipment. And of course, reinforcing frequent and thorough handwashing practices throughout a shift and after breaks is probably the most important thing you can do to support your food safety each day. Preparing food in the warmer months can expose food to conditions that can make it decay more quickly. And even in cases where foods are carefully and consistently refrigerated, foodborne pathogens can still grow – particularly in food like produce and deli meats that are popular options in the summer months. This makes accurate food labeling especially important. However, according to the CDC, one-quarter of restaurants don’t label refrigerated and ready-to-eat foods with dates indicating when the foods are no longer safe to consume. This is more of an issue for independent restaurants than it is for chain restaurants, the agency found. But in the businesses where it is a problem, it’s also common to find labeling discrepancies between when a food was prepared and when it should be discarded. This can mean the difference between exposing guests to foodborne pathogens and not. In your operation, are there clear, consistent practices for labeling foods so that employees can interpret them easily? Further, are all items being stored on a first-in, first-out basis? Accurate food labeling and storage can help busy employees more easily notice, on the spot, when an item needs to be discarded. |
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May 2024
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