Safe Gloves for Food Prep

9/25/2014 by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Alison

Thank you for your website and for all that you do!

My cook wants to wear gloves while working with raw meat. I was wondering if you know whether nitrile medical gloves are safe (ie don't leach anything into the food), or do you know of a safe glove to use? Maybe natural latex?

The gloves won't be used for anything heat related, just things like cutting meat, and making meatballs.

Thanks so much!

Alison

Debra's Answer

The use of gloves for food prep is common—it's done in every restaurant.

I just took a peek at disposable gloves regarding your leaching question, and I'll just summarize by saying that all the materials leach, and this is addressed during a step in processing. But it appears that different brands of gloves may be leached for different periods of time. I have no way of creating a reccommendation to evaluate which might be the best gloves because of this.

The main materials used to make disposable gloves are

• Vinyl / Poly (PVC)

• Nitrile

• Latex

But if you look at all the choices for gloves, it quickly becomes apparent that there may be other additives for various functions.

I would avoid the PVC gloves for toxicity.

Nitrile is a synthetic rubber made from acrylonitrile and butadiene. Acrylonitrile is a suspected human carcinogen, considered toxic, and know to release ions of cyanide. It also cannot be legally released into the environment because it is considered hazardous.

Latex would be OK if you are not latex sensitive.

It's a tough decision. What is the reason your cook wants to wear gloves? Is it cross-contamination? I handle raw meat with my bare hands and then wash them with soap and hot water before I handle any other foods. And if I am making a salad, for example, I'll handle the raw vegetables BEFORE handling the raw meat. I also use a separate cutting board and run my knife under the hottest water after using it to cut meat. I've never had any cross-contamination problems.