The other day, I went to pick up a cheesesteak from a local joint and I I was reminded of something that has bothered me for many years now. The employees there all were wearing disposable gloves. For some odd reason, it appears that many people actually think this is a safe and sanitary measure to take when handling food. Why this is so, I cannot fathom.

Let me start off by recanting a story from a few years ago. I had gone to Subway to pick up a sandwich when this lady came in behind me with what appeared to be about two or three hundred kids. Like all restaurants these days, all the ‘sandwich artists’ had disposable gloves on. While the ‘lettuce manager’ was packing my BMT, the phone rang. The young man who had started my sandwich had put on new gloves to start the lady’s food, and with the utmost care (and I’m not exaggerating this), he used the tiniest sliver of the tip of his pinky to knock the phone off the hook and onto his shoulder. He did this so he wouldn’t have to change his gloves.

The lady behind me started screaming at the top of her lungs (again, not an exaggeration) about how the young man was to immediately throw away all their sandwiches and start over because of his filthy hands. Her assumption that if he was so blatant about answering the phone with a pinky that he must have been wiping off his ass sweat with the other fingers at another time. Complete over-reaction.

It took a lot of effort for me to not point out to her (while she was eating) that she was touching her food with the same hands that had

• Opened the door
• Touched the counters
• Wiped the noses of at least half of her brood
• and touched the money that she paid with

All of which were exponentially dirtier than the poor man’s freshly gloved hands.

I actually think forcing employees to glove their hands creates a filthier food environment. First off, your hands sweat like a pig when encased in rubber. That sweat has a tendency to drip. Second, like the cheesesteak place, employees might think just wearing the gloves is an adequate measure to take to keep their hands clean, but unlike bare hands, they cannot feel when their hands and fingers are grimy and may touch food when they absolutely should not. At no time when I was there did any of the employees actually change into a fresh pair, even after handling money.

What I’d prefer to see is employees trained to sanitize their hands every time they switch stations with a waterless hand sanitizer and require them to wash constantly. Leave the gloves for those jobs where touching something dirty is required, like cleaning bathrooms or taking out the trash. Sure, if an employee has a cut or something, take appropriate measures, but requiring gloves at all times just seems like a waste to me.

Now, maybe there are statistics that show a sharp decline in food poisoning where restaurants require gloves, but somehow I seriously doubt it.