Dalthyrian wrote:

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If ANYTHING should be illegal it should be cutting meat while wearing FABRIC (cloth) gloves as they are a bacteria factory.

I mostly did not wear gloves in 28 years on the block, except when cutting pork loins on the saw I wore a Playtes heavy duty rubber glove with a cloth liner,, to prevent bone cuts and occasionally I wore a wizard glove onm y right hand (I'm left handed) to protect against cuts when on the block.  

I see no sanitation/health issue with cutting bare handed. We had a hand sanitizing station in every cutting room and if you left the room for any reason you were required to wash your hands before returning to the block. I must have washed my hands 15 times a day. Thats' in addition to washing hands before leaving the restroom.

 

 

One of our cutters said today that you CANNOT cut meat bare handed.  That it is illegal.  Yet for 7 years I cut meat in Hingham, MA barehanded.  I wear gloves these days but I never have a problem with one of my guys cutting bare handed if they wash their hands.  I can't find anything online to support his claim, but also can't find anything to support mine.  Is there a link somewhere for Massachusetts Food Safety that can outline specifically if it's ok to touch raw meat and uncooked food with bare hands?  I absolutely insist that my deli workers use gloves because that's meat that will be instantly ingested - anything cooked you need to- I'm sure of that.  Just not sure of raw meat.   Please help!

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jimhenry2000 wrote:

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Dalthyrian wrote:

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If ANYTHING should be illegal it should be cutting meat while wearing FABRIC (cloth) gloves as they are a bacteria factory.....................

 

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I think we shouldn't be allowed to breathe in the meat department. We should wear sterile space suits and have everything we exhale go through a hose to the outside air. But the outlet can't be within 1000 feet of the doors to the store. Of course we cant wear the hose while using the saw. We also shouldn't be allowed to put meat on the tables. Meat has dead animals in it. The sterile space suit must not be put on until after you shower and enter the sterile room (between the shower and cutting room) where you are dressed by another person already wearing a sterile space suit. There should be a trough of sanitizer water you must step in with both boots as you enter the cutting room.

Mainemeatman wrote:

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Many stores or chains are insisting on gloves- particularly, if visible by the public- theyve heard enough horror stories on tv...

and many customers will now notice if employees are wearing gloves or not- I never got use to wearing them,,it was never required-yrs ago, but in some stores the store owner/company policy is that they do wear gloves, I dont believe its law-

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 Right. It's company policy, but not a law.

only wear gloves when doing grinds, cant stand those things on my hands, you cant feel anything.

 

I think we shouldn't be allowed to breathe in the meat department. We should wear sterile space suits and have everything we exhale go through a hose to the outside air. But the outlet can't be within 1000 feet of the doors to the store....

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...And as beauracracy would have it, the smokers would be 950' closer to the front door than the meat-cutters.

I do not wear gloves but I wash my hands so often they have webbing between the fingers now

I do not wear gloves in my store because the gloves they provide for me are crap. they are the thin clear plastic poly gloves. I hate them. I can't get a good grip on the knife with them and they are always ripping. i believe gloves are only neccessary when working with ready to eat foods, not raw foods. Stores that require the use of gloves with everything are just trying to impress people but it is not required by law. I have had customers make comments about me not wearing gloves but I just shrug and say oh well. If you cook the meat properly you should kill any bactaria on it. If you don't know how to cook you probably shouldn't buy it.

My understanding is that the law generally says that gloves are NOT required when handling raw meat, but they are REQUIRED when handling RTE (ready-to-eat) products. That covers the food safety rules.

Now for employee safety: it is illegal to cut meat without wearing a cut-resistant glove on the opposite hand as the knife. I still break this law often, but you should be aware. We were cited by OSHA, not knowing that this was a law.

You are spot on there brother Louie. Cut resistant gloves if you are cutting meat and latex or other glove for ready to eat product.

Here is a question I have for everyone- How often do you see cooks wearing gloves? I usually see them poking or proding a steak, burger or chop with bare finger to test for doneness. Then the waitress sticks her thumb in the fries as she brings the plates out....or my favorite is when the server loads up a big tray full of peoples dinners and hoists it up high on the shoulder making sure their hair is brushing the plate closest to their head! Nothing wrong with this, we all need a little more healthy bacteria in our lives.......

Ï generally only wore my Wizard (Kevlar) glove immediately after an accident.  Eventually though I would abandon it. If I had worn it always I would have prevented a few injuries and a few severed tendons.  For grinding, and cutting porkloins on the saw I relly liked those heavy duty deluxe Playtex gloves. They were blue rubber or something like that, with a cozy felt or cloth lining. Those are very sanitary and keep your hands warm and prevent bone cuts.  We would just take them off the shelf and write them up at the store office.

never heard of it being illeagal