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Gloves an unexamined link in food recalls, says glove safety expert
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Wednesday, 25 September, 2024, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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California, USA
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Food processing and food service companies are being urged to accelerate glove safety practices following the most recent spike in product recalls of contaminated food.
Steve Ardagh, CEO of Eagle Protect, said, "Gloves are meant to protect, not infect. Over a hundred billion gloves are used in US every year yet there is scant awareness of their microbial contamination risks."
The CDC reports that foodborne illnesses impact 48 million Americans each year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.
A peer-reviewed paper published in July in the Journal of Food Protection spotlighted the variety of pathogens found in an alarming proportion of gloves used in the food industry.
These include Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Anthrax, and various fungi including Aspergillus. An independent test of 2,800 gloves from 26 different glove brands found human faecal indicator organisms in 46 percent of gloves tested.
“Polluted water sources used in manufacturing combined with cheap hazardous chemicals which can include PFAS, Phthalates and Bisphenol and the absence of any regulatory testing or oversight on arrival make for a perfect storm of contamination. There are many factors why food becomes contaminated causing illness to consumers, and it is proven that gloves are one of those factors. Cheap gloves can rip easily, immediately opening the door to hand cross-contamination when handling food,” said Ardagh.
In surveys by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, 58% of respondents' companies had been affected by a product recall in the last five years. Food contamination can be deadly, as evidenced by the recent Boars Head outbreak with nine deaths and over 50 hospitalisations. The cost to food companies of recalls can be crippling. The average direct cost of a food recall is $10 million though some have run to hundreds of millions. Further impairments range from an immediate loss in sales and long-lasting reputational damage to litigation, multi-million-dollar fines, incarceration, government regulation, and bankruptcy.
"While poor glove usage is but one of many causes of contamination in food processing and food service, the use of cheap toxic gloves is symptomatic of company culture that diminishes food safety practices. Solutions are readily available, cost-effective, and common sense," concluded Ardagh.
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