Today, the restaurant-worker preparing my lunch (and that of my friend JB) was wearing protective, health-encouraging gloves. This allowed him to touch, squeeze, fold, fondle, and otherwise prepare the food without using his naked hands, or awkward spoons, spatulas, and such.
Later, as JB and I shared our nourishing meal, I saw said worker chatting with friends; touching them, touching the table, the wall, the chairs, etc., all with his still-gloved hands. And suddenly, those gloves didn’t seem all that great anymore.
I have previously seen workers mopping the floor, shakings hands with customers, receiving and dispensing cash, and doing all manner of germ transacting without bothering to take off the now colonized latex disease-spreaders.
If these people weren’t wearing gloves, they might be more tempted to wash their hands after wiping the floor with a filthy rag. Or at least they might use tongs or wax paper to grab your food. But with gloves on, they apparently feel that they’ve done their bit to protect you and yours, and they’ll do no more.
Or maybe they think that the gloves are there to protect their fingernails from infiltration by nasty bits of lettuce or guacamole. Or, as JB guesses, maybe they think that the gloves protect your lunch from skin oils rather than viral and bacterial passengers.
Occasionally, I say something. “Now that you’ve said hello,” I might say, having just watched the customer cough into his hand before being grasped there by the sandwich-maker, “would you mind changing your gloves?”
Usually, they think I’m acting like a germaphobe. Which clearly I am. But I’m obviously not the only one, since someone told them to wear gloves in the first place, and it wasn’t the Health Department. Someone thinks that people care about these things, right?
In any case, when I see gloves on, I usually get more concerned about hygiene, not less.
If you don’t want germs, don’t eat out. Seriously, the hygiene practices of most restaurants are hideous—it’s best to just not know.
Hey, I read Kitchen Confidential. I’m hip. I’m just saying that I honestly think the gloves make it worse.
That reminds me of the controversy over irradiation of raw meat. The purpose of this process is to kill pathogens, thereby making the meat safer. One argument against it is that it will lead processors to more carelessness with basic hygiene. If I’m already wearing a glove, why does it matter if I clean the toilet, then handle food or dishes? The glove protects, right? Anywhere with a glove policy should also have policies about when to reglove, or they do (as you’ve noted) make things worse instead of better.