Some companies require their staff to wear gloves when handling or preparing food.

My observation is that this does more harm than good.

When one has gloves on, it gives the perception that one is now able to handle a wide variety of food by hand.

Many staff, however, also handle things like money and dirty dishes and clean tables with the same gloves that are used to handle food.

Without gloves on, we are more aware of the dirt on our hands and, I am hopeful when I say this, most of us are trained from a young age to wash our hands before doing certain tasks.

It may be time to change the standing order for our food handling staff and donate our gloves to more appropriate causes.

Sam Yeow Kah Leong