As a leading healthcare-based food-safe Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) brand and innovator for the past three decades, Tronex International understands and deeply appreciates the dramatic continued impacts of COVID-19 on all restaurants, food service establishments, manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors across the country.
As restaurants progress through various stages of re-opening in many states, utmost safety and cross-contamination prevention assurance will remain a priority for all staff and customers. Best practices in food handling, packaging, prep, and service are as critical as ever to protecting workers and the public from exposure to all forms of potential foodborne illness.
When it comes to food safety, the most critical factor remains risk-based preventive controls, including maintaining clean facilities and sanitized surfaces, as well as providing workers with the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for their job function, sourced from suppliers with high-quality standards. An effective PPE protocol includes disposable gloves, face masks, and depending on the application, other disposable apparel items such as bouffant caps, aprons, or beard covers.
The hygiene standards already in place within many food service operations provide a foundation for managing the risk of foodborne illness transmission and cross-contamination. However, food establishments and consumer-facing operations considering re-opening through COVID-19 will need to implement and maintain a more frequent and rigorous, CDC-recommended cleaning and disinfection protocol for high human contact surfaces. Multipurpose or heavier-duty nitrile gloves, as well as disposable face masks, fluid-resistant coveralls and/or shoe covers, offer added protection for workers handling sanitizing agents and other more intensive cleaning duties.
Disposable Hand Protection Overview
A range of disposable glove styles and material formulations are available to provide reliable hand protection for various food handling applications. These include polyethylene, vinyl, nitrile, and latex material options. Consider the tasks involved to guide selection of the proper glove style(s):
Polyethylene (PE) and Hybrid PE Gloves: Food service tasks that require frequent changing, such as sandwich prep or single meal packaging, can be addressed with lightweight and economical PE gloves that offer easy on-and-off. Latest-generation Hybrid PE gloves, such as those innovative options offered by Tronex, feature enhanced stretch, strength, and enhanced grip properties, that provide a step-up in durability, fit, and performance as compared to conventional polyethylene gloves.
Vinyl Gloves: Food-safe vinyl gloves have been a long-time standard for food safety, and provide dependable barrier protection, with a formed fit to the hand.
Nitrile Gloves: Well suited to a wide range of food service, food handling, and cleaning duties, gloves made with nitrile, a synthetic rubber material, provide excellent barrier protection, with added resistance to oils and chemicals. With quality nitrile gloves also able to be made extremely soft and comfortable, yet strong, they offer a comfortable, non-fatiguing fit to the hands.
Latex Gloves: If latex allergy is not a concern, gloves made from high-quality, natural rubber latex are an excellent option. They offer an incredibly comfortable “second skin” fit and feel.
Regardless of glove type used, users must ensure to practice frequent hand washing and observe proper glove change frequency.
Tronex International, Inc., is an award-winning enterprise, delivering superior healthcare and safety product solutions on a global scale. Established in New Jersey in 1989, Tronex has grown exponentially into one of the most trusted and well-respected brands of disposable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). With our constantly evolving range of disposable head-to-toe PPE, including a comprehensive line of food-safe and general-purpose gloves that are quality crafted utilizing medical-grade technology in our state-of-the-art ISO-certified and U.S. FDA-registered facilities, we strive to provide the finest quality products and the most trusted service at the best value in the market. Learn more at their website.
This article content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. Tronex International, Inc. hereby disclaims any and all liability to any party for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental, or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of the article content, which is provided as is, and without warranties.
