Using gloves in restaurants was intended to cut down on food-borne illnesses. But, after twenty years of glove use in restaurants, it is not clear that they prevent the transmission of illness.Groups argue that the gloves themselves are dangerous to health. Latex gloves can cause allergic reactions and vinyl gloves contain a suspect carcinogen.
"The reason that workers wear gloves is that they don't wash their hands as much as they should," said Denise Korniewicz, a professor at the University of Miami. "If you walk into any fast-food restaurant and observe people, they use the cash register, they wipe their nose and then they make your sandwich." "The problem is that a worker may never change the gloves or clean them, thinking that the gloves themselves are sufficient protection,".
A study published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health in 2005 reported that more than a third of workers said they did not always change their gloves between touching raw meat or poultry and ready-to-eat food.
"I'd be thrilled to see fewer gloves, more washing," ... Health experts agree that bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food and regular washing would be more effective than glove use. But it is safe only if employee hand-washing is carefully monitored.
Full NY-Times article linked here