Some restaurants at odds with state over glove-wearing proposal
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Oregon Health Authority has passed a new rule requiring restaurant workers who touch your food to wear gloves.
But the restaurant industry is pushing back.
The new rule was supposed to take effect Sunday but it was postponed so the state can hear more from the public.
The state is proposing the new glove requirement to stop the spread of diseases like Norovirus, citing a 2003 survey where 63 percent of Oregon restaurants were out of compliance with hand-washing rules. But gloving may actually result in the opposite of its intended effect.
Rob Brackenbury, co-owner of the Cadillac Café in Northeast Portland, said he thinks such a requirement may promote disease instead of preventing it.
"You put that glove on, you've got that warm moisture in there, it's a breeding ground," he said.
He also thinks gloves may make workers overconfident and likely to skip their required hand washing.
According to Jeremiah Morris, based on his experience as a chef at the café, each person would go through about 100 gloves in a 7-hour shift.
That means over the course of a year if 10 employees use one box of gloves a day at $8 a box, it would cost more than $29,000.
Additionally, those gloves will end up in a landfill.
Across the river in Vancouver, Troy Lovell, head cook at Paul’s Restaurant, wears gloves but only because he has too.
"It seems to be more of a hindrance than it is doing any good," he said.
In Washington, it's the law.
"My opinion as a cook, I disagree with them," Lovell said.
Instead of adding a new law, Brackenbury said he wishes Oregon would simply enforce the one already on the books.
"Focusing on making sure that facilities are adhering to the double hand-washing policy would be a much better way to protect the public," he said.
The state is planning a public hearing for Aug. 20.
How can you possibly enforce a law requiring double hand-washing???  After reading this article, I don't think I'll be eating out anytime soon.
I agree with the double hand washing instead of gloves. Gloves do hold bacteria and then you have the cross contamination thing going on because it takes more time to change them than to wash your hand. Also, those gloves are a standard small, medium and large. What about the people (like me) who don't fit the average sizes? Waste of time and money!!
we have to wear gloves in the bakery I work in IF we are directly touching the finished product. Before it's finished it's more your option. I wear them simply because I'm a little neurotic about having gooey hands half the time. Yes, we wash our hands more in one day than some people probably do in a week. I'll tell you what, the lack of gloves doesnt bother me in restaurant food prep but the lack of hair nets is something I can't stand seeing! I've found several hairs in my food over the course of my adult life and that completely grosses me out!
I personally hate to see my food being handled by a glove wearing food service worker. Something about it grosses me out. Perhaps it's that I have worked full time in food service for the past 21 years.
Ummm according to the paperwork the health department brought us recently, along with the other changes, they no longer require double handwashing.  From the latest FDA food code -" 2-301.13 Special Handwash Procedures Double handwashing is no longer required"  We were pretty surprised to read that!
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The glove requirement is for ready to eat foods only, not stuff that is going to be cooked, which I thought was already required? Â
Gloves are a false sense of security. Anyone can still scratch their face or adjust their hair with gloves on and then just continue with what they were doing. No thank you
The government you voted for knows best, bend over and take it you stupid libs.
As a restaurant employee who is fanatical about hand-washing, this switch to glove-wearing is really bothering me. I've already seen a huge reduction in the amount of hand-washing by my co-workers and managers when the gloves are on - we actually did a full temporary switch in January and February until we realized the law didn't take effect until July - that promptly returned to proper handwashing as soon as the gloves stayed off.
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This law will be a bad thing - it will increase the amount of illness. And not just from the employees having either a false sense of security or laziness - but from their managers pushing them to HURRY UP and SKIP the proper procedure necessary to make the gloves safe.
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Do you know what those two employees in the kitchen preparing your fast food lunch are doing - or at least, SHOULD be doing?
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Wash, gloves on, raw meat into broiler, gloves off, wash, gloves on, drop frozen food into fryer, gloves off, wash, gloves on, prepare sandwiches, gloves off, wash, gloves on, serve up fried foods, gloves off, start over.
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And that's if the restaurant has no specialty foods, like flat-iron sandwiches, that necessitate yet another change of station.
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20 seconds of handwashing, soaping, scrubbing, each wash.
Completely drying hands with paper towels.
Gloves that aren't easy to put on - especially quickly.
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And it's expected to be done in under three minutes.
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When it isn't, the manager will run in the back - often pleasing the customer greatly - and grab items themselves, contaminating items that now need washed, and slowing the process even more - or potentially sickening other customers. Is the result really worth that extra moment or two of rush?
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The real culprit is seldom laziness - it's service expectations. Fast is often much more visible, and given a higher priority, than safe.
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The other day i watched an employee at a Subway make a sandwich with gloves, ring up a transaction with the gloves, handling money (which is filthy) Then walked back over and started handling food without changing the gloves. I said something and they just laughed at me.I would much rather have current handwashing laws enforced then this glove law. It gives people a  false sense of cleanliness.Â
Okay, let's see if we can figure out how this is supposed to work:
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Today there are employees who are skipping proper hand washing procedures. So as a solution we will require them to wear gloves.
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Of course it is only logical that requiring them to wear gloves will suddenly make them more responsible and they will follow all the proper procedures for re-gloving and washing their hands before putting on new gloves.
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Hmmmm......maybe it is just me but I think I see a slight flaw in the logic here.
Awaiting approval?.??
@Rob C This is being censored by Livefyre ..big time
OH Â Â MY Â Â GOSH!!!!!!
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Only government can come up with something this stupid.
Someday people will be replaced by machines then disease won't be an issue; the future is so bright.
People are just gross biological units that should be encased in Teflon and plastic at all times; particularly, when around other people.
I would think also that rubber gloves can be dangerous around gas stove tops, ovens, broilers and fryolators too.Â
 @jallard There some weird type of non organic based material, some are allergic to it.