Is our food any safer?

A few months ago, I remember seeing some information somewhere that the recent wearing of latex gloves by people in preparing food, especially at restaurants, has done little to improve the safety of the food being prepared. I've always been a bit suspicious of this effort to improve safety, mainly because my experience in food service told me that wearing gloves would not do much to keep food safer.

Today at a mall restaurant, it became absolutely clear to me just why.

I watched a teenage girl at the World Wrapps restaurant in the mall. She wore latex gloves, of course. She was responsible for making the smoothies and serving them, so her work mainly dealth with using the blender and handing the cups of icy-fruit blends to customers. But she was also responsible for helping at the cash register and wiping up the counter and picking up the trash left by people unwrapping their straws.

I watched her, as I waited for my teriyaki chicken wrap, as she dropped ingredients into the blender, hit the button to liquify the mixture and poured the smoothie into a cup. As she called the name of the person she owed a smoothie, she picked up some trash. Then she took some money at the register. A minute later, she used a rag to wipe down the counter. Made a smoothie. Wiped the counter again.

For someone so concerned about the cleanliness of the service area, one would have thought she switched gloves several times. Nope. All the germs and dirt were just collected on her gloved hands. In fact, the only things kept clean in the entire process were her hands! That seems exactly backward to me. By wearing the gloves, the germs and dirt are just held on the gloves, waiting to be transferred to the food. I have even seen people brush their nose or mouth with their latex-clad fingers, something that would probably not happen with bare hands -- at least not without a sanitized wipedown afterward.

The food industry should lose the latex gloves and re-emphasize actual cleaning and safety procedures. Wipe or wash your hands after handling money or performing a cleaning task. Keep food clean and separate from contaminated areas (like your dirty hands, gloved or not).

I don;t expect a sterile environment. I do expect that workers follow the basic cleanliness procedures required by the food handler's certification exam. It's simple, really, and common sense.

But I won't be ordering a smoothie anytime soon.

-- Issaquah, Wash.