Protect the food, not hands

MALAYSIAN consumers are generally an indifferent lot. They are unfazed when the food they buy is prepared with bare hands that are then used to collect cash/money so long as the food is tasty and delicious. You see this happening in wet and night markets, food stalls, hawker centres and more recently in food trucks.

We are also not taken aback or feel disconcerted when food vendors in food courts use their gloved hands to handle both food and cash. The gloves are put on merely to please customers. After wearing the gloves, in addition to serving the food, they also use their gloved hand to use their handphone or wipe their nose.

Customers at popular fastfood outlets also rarely bat an eye when workers use their gloved hands after preparing the food to wipe the counter, open the fridge and oven doors and then resume preparing food for the next customer.

Or even worse, the food handler wears the same pair of gloves all day long. The gloves are not only dirty but could be even dirtier than his bare hands by the end of the day.

On rare occasions when a food handler is confronted for using the same gloved hand to handle both cash and food, the ‘‘default’’ reply would be “All the others are doing the same”.

How can this unhygienic food handling practice be minimised if not eradicated?

Firstly, customers must be courageous enough to point out to the food handler or the owner the wrong use of the gloves. Following that, they can choose to boycott the food stall or outlet. Food consumer “activists”’ could prowl around, capture these acts on video and highlight them on social media.

As for delinquent food handlers, I wonder how many are just stubborn or too plain lazy to change their ways and how many are actually ignorant of basic hygiene standards and how to properly use disposable gloves. It seems to me that many of them have gloves on because they are merely told to do so. That explains why they go around merrily handling food and cash (and whatever) with their gloves on. They end up with clean hands but not clean food. What irony!

It’s not just the food assistants (both locals and foreigners) who are ignorant or illtrained in proper food handling. Recently a picture of a VVIP with his gloved hand holding a knife and his bare hand holding a bun went viral!

The Health Department and local councils must step in to ensure that food handlers are adequately trained in basic hygiene and on the proper use of gloves.

It must be impressed upon the food handlers that the purpose of wearing gloves is to keep the food they prepare free from any kind of contamination or cross contamination (for example gloves used for raw meat must be separated from gloves used for cooked food).

Food handlers must be told that cash is filthy and is a major source of contamination.

They must also be trained to wash their hands with soap after using the toilet. And employers must, needless to say, provide a sufficient supply of gloves, soap and water.

But how often are enforcement spot checks carried out to ensure the rules or standard operating procedures are complied with?

Can food vendors be encouraged to use tongs or scoops more often whenever it is feasible?