High quality food equipment is something we have come to expect in our food industry. There’s a new way to look at the quality of that disposable glove you might be wearing when handling those ready-to-eat foods. NSF Protocol 155 for Disposable Food Contact Gloves has just been released in January of 2003. We are happy to say FoodHandler is the first glove company to raise the bar and receive the NSF mark.

Commercial food equipment is usually held to a higher standard of performance and durability than most kitchen items you can purchase for your home kitchen. NSF certified equipment might have a public health benefit for food safety, employee safety, be easier to clean, work more efficiently, or have unique characteristics that make it top quality and much better than the average.

Who is NSF? If you haven’t heard of NSF International, you haven’t looked closely at your food equipment. NSF is an independent, not-for-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to public health and safety. NSF is the world leader in standards development, product certification, education, and public health risk management. Everything from refrigerators to dishwashers, countertops, kitchen flooring, and cutting boards has the blue NSF seal on the product, which means it has been tested and has passed the highest performance standard written specifically for that equipment or utensil.

Why is a Food Glove Protocol Needed? Until now, there have been NO national criteria for food gloves, based on all the types of materials used (Polyethylene, Vinyl, Synthetics, Latex, Nitrile) in the food industry. Glove quality for the food industry has been a moving target. "Medical rejects" often get marketed as food gloves. The Food & Drug Administration has some oversight for medical gloves and their standards, but very little specifically related to food gloves. The NSF P155 is comprehensive. It brings several of the medical standards together in the document, developed new standards, and requires new test methods and auditing for food glove manufacturers. An expert panel from several facets of the food industry reviewed the protocol and it is a living document that will be changed as standards are updated.

What does Certification Mean? NSF certification is not a one-time activity. It involves initial qualification, unannounced factory inspections, periodic re-testing, and if necessary, enforcement through product recall, and de-certification. So food gloves must consistently meet all the criteria in NSF P155. Glove boxes and outer cases must be labeled as shown (see above) to identify the NSF certification.

What Areas Does the Food Glove Protocol Cover? Protocol P155 covers disposable single-task gloves typically used for food handling, preparation and service tasks. It establishes criteria for product quality in terms of toxicology, physical properties, microbial testing, barrier resistance, and sanitation while focusing on:

Safety: Test the ingredients used to product the gloves to make sure they are safe for food contact.

Durability: Testing to assure the glove will perform for the foodservice operator.

Cleanliness: Audits of the factories for proper manufacturing procedures for sanitary conditions.

Bottom Line: Development of quality standards (such as NSF P155) makes sense. Better products can have an impact on food safety. Specify to your distributor/supplier that you prefer and require products that are NSF certified, including disposable gloves.

‘Til next time,