You can't touch this.

I'm getting concerned about the number of places where I have seen
people, in the service industry, wearing latex gloves. I mostly see it
in restaurant kitchens, but it is also appearing in the corner deli, and,
on a recent flight to San Diego, on the hands of the flight
attendants.

I'm casually asking for a beverage, and the next thing I see is this
plastic wrapped hand thrusting a package of peanuts towards me.

Have we evolved so much in the last ten years they we have now developed a
sensitivity to bad food ? Or is it just one too many yahoos with a weak
immune system and a need for vengance. One fool has eaten some salsa
that's been in the sun too long and suddenly the Great Chefs of Europe are
poisoning us.


What really bothers me is that these gloves aren't really going to help.
When you look at all the culinary horror stories out there, they usually
involve things like poorly prepared rats or misplaced fingers. A latex
glove isn't going to offer much protection when you use 12 inches of
surgical steel to take the end off your left index. Sooner or later it is
still getting into the salad.

So this is more a philosophical approach to what were doing. We think
those white frocked fools can't touch the food, so we think everything is
kosher. But, and let's all just agree on this, gloves aren't stopping a
pube getting into the lobster bisque.

It is all about perceived risk.

I was in a supermarket recently and saw two things that disturbed me. The
first was that I could now buy Hand Sanitising Soap in 1 Gallon Bottles.
Apparently people are drinking this stuff. The second one was that just
near all the shopping carts was a dispenser of hand sanitiser.

At first I thought this was some sort of effort to keep all the fresh
produce clean. But after a doing a bit of research I found that there had
been a report produced that stated the dirtiest part of a supermarket was
the shopping cart. So now there was sanitiser for the users convenience.

I feel I should point out that the research was sponsored by a company
that makes soap and hand sanitiser.

Statistically, it can't be that bad. If it was : (a) we would all be dead
by how and (b) we wouldn't have survived the last thousands of years
without refrigeration.

Me ? well I'm going to go out and eat some dirt.