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19 March 2024

Better to wash hands than to use gloves for food

Published
By Maryam Alyammahi

Is it cleaner for chefs to use gloves at restaurants?

Dubai Municipality’s chief of Food Inspection, Sultan Taher, says this is not always true and he prefers the use of bare hands in preparing food - under the condition that the hands and the place for preparing the food are clean.

He explains: “The person cooking might not be aware of the danger of keeping gloves close to heat, which might cause the plastic materials to get into the food he is preparing.

“Some cooks do not change the gloves every now and then, and they touch raw meats beside other foods which can cause food poisoning.”

“In case a restaurant decides to make the cooks wear gloves, they should make sure to change them every half an hour depending on the amount of work and type of food they are preparing,” says Taher.

He pointed out that the most important thing for restaurants to do is to meet all the hygiene standards set by Dubai Municipality.

5 important measures restaurants should follow to avoid any violation or food poisoning complaints

-       There should be a Health Inspector inside the restaurant to make sure the kitchen is well cleaned, besides guiding workers in case he saw any violation.

-       Make sure that normal food should be kept at 60 degrees, and cold food should be kept at 0 degrees and below.

-       Cleaning cooking surfaces continuously.

-       There should be chopping boards for each type of food.


He said also by taking off your gloves that does not mean that we will ignore the personal hygiene of the workers at the restaurants, so keep your hands and restaurant clean.

[Homepage image courtesy Shutterstock]