Gloves

Gloves are a very common piece of PPE. They are very effective barriers between the bacteria on your hands and the food you are handling – when procedures are followed correctly – including how you put them on, take them off, and how you use them. Did you notice where the food handler went wrong just now?

The food handler used their gloves to prepare food for their customer, and then used those gloved hands to take their customers’ money before moving onto the next customer to prepare their food. Coins harbour more bacteria than the average toilet seat and cross contamination is pretty much guaranteed with bad practice like this. Only use gloves for their appointed task, make sure they aren’t ripped when you use them, and put them in the wash after your task is done if they reusable. If they are disposable – throw them away before you move onto your next task, in line with your organisation’s procedures. You can see our additional resources for a step by step on how to remove disposable gloves without contaminating your hands.

Removing Gloves

With disposable gloves it’s important that you know how to put them on, take them off and dispose of them properly.

When you’re ready to remove your PPE, take off your gloves first, then your apron. Follow these steps:

• Using one gloved hand, grip the outside of the glove on the opposite wrist.
• Peel the glove off, letting it turn inside out as it comes off your hand.
• Holding the removed glove in your gloved hand, slide the fingers of your ungloved hand underneath the remaining glove at the wrist.
• Peel the glove off, letting it turn inside out, and keeping the first glove inside the second.
• Now dispose of the gloves in the correct bin.