147 | Dirty Gloves Straight from the Pack - Should We Be Worried? | Plant-based Packaging Hazards |
Plus, the anatomy of a deadly beverage fraud
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Microorganisms on disposable gloves, a new food safety hazard?
Packaging corner: hazardous chemicals found in plant-based packaging;
Food Safety News and Resources;
Anatomy of an alcohol fraud;
How to make a pickle sandwich;
Food fraud news, emerging issues and recent incidents.
Hi,
Welcome to Issue 147 of The Rotten Apple. If you’re new here, my mission is to keep you up to date with food safety and food fraud news, without ads or boring bits. Thanks for joining me.
This week’s issue comes to you from the annual conference of the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP) which started yesterday (Sunday). I’m so excited to be at such a large and prestigious conference and I’m looking forward to learning lots of new food safety and food fraud insights to share with you in the coming weeks.
The big story this week is about microorganisms on disposable food handling gloves. New, unused disposable gloves straight out of the pack, that is. Is this yet another hazard we need to be worrying about in food safety land?
Also this week, nasty chemicals in plant-based plastic packaging alternatives and a food fraud case study.
Thank you for being here,
Karen
P.S. Thank you to my wonderful new 👏👏 paying subscribers 👏👏. Your subscriptions allow me to keep this newsletter ad-free and independent, and support my efforts to bring you the best not-boring food safety news every week.
“Reliable, easily accessible, good information which I can read on the go and use in my day to day operations.” Rika (South Africa)
Packaging Corner: Contaminants in Plant-based Alternatives to Plastic Packaging
Single-use plastic packaging is being phased out in many parts of the world, and renewably sourced plant-based materials are becoming more common. Researchers in Europe explored the presence of hazardous chemicals in plant-based food contact materials by testing 28 samples from the Dutch market for 313 chemicals.
The samples contained:
chemicals that are not authorised for use in food contact materials in Europe;
plant protection products (herbicides and pesticides);
plasticisers; and
certain heavy metals including zinc and barium. Other heavy metals including arsenic, lead and mercury were found in low levels.
Takeaways: Plant-based packaging materials may contain unexpected and undeclared chemicals, and some of these could render the materials both unfit for purpose and non-compliant with regulations.
Source: Bouma, K., Kalsbeek-van Wijk, D., Steendam, L., Sijm, D.T.H.M., de Rijk, T., Kause, R., Hoogenboom, R. and van Leeuwen, S. (2024). Plant-based food contact materials: presence of hazardous substances. Food Additives & Contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, Analysis, Control, Exposure & Risk Assessment, [online] 41(7), pp.846–855. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2024.2357350.
Dirty Gloves Straight from the Pack
Are food-handling gloves more hazardous than we imagined?
If you’re a food safety expert, you are no doubt aware of the many problems associated with disposable gloves in the food industry.
Problems like gloves being worn for too long; pieces of broken gloves ending up in food; gloves being used in place of handwashing; skin, dexterity and comfort problems for workers and the presence of dangerous chemicals like plasticisers in some gloves.
For me, the biggest problem with glove use is the false sense of security workers can get when wearing gloves. Put on a pair of gloves and you can feel like you are clean, hygienic and contamination-proof. This can lead to workers making food safety errors such as handling cooked foods after raw foods without changing their gloves first.
These are problems we know, and have been talking about in the food safety world for decades.
What’s new today is information published in July’s issue of the Journal of Food Protection in an article titled Potential for Glove Risk Amplification via Direct Physical, Chemical, and Microbiological Contamination by Barry Michaels and others. It’s a wide-ranging and frequently rambling collection of concerns about disposable gloves.
Much of the article is unsurprising. For example, the authors discuss how supply issues created by COVID-19 created opportunities for unethical behaviour in glove supply chains, and share that when gloves fail they release microbe-rich sweat from the interior of the glove.
For me, the surprising information in this article is about the microbial contamination present on gloves before they have been used. The authors share information from yet to be published research that says they found faecal indicator organisms on “around 50% of samples” of disposable gloves. The samples were collected from 26 brands of glove, which the authors say represent approximately one quarter of the estimated 100 glove factories in Southeast Asia.
“Around 50% of samples contained fecal indicator organisms (Michaels et al., (2024)).”
The paper references other studies performed on non-sterile medical examination gloves and conveys the impression that many brands of gloves are teeming with pathogens.
However, when I examined the original sources, it became clear that although microorganisms are present on new, unused disposable gloves, the numbers are typically low. For example, Ferreira et al (2011) found approximately 5 or 6 microbes (colony forming units (cfu)) per finger on new disposable, non-sterile latex medical examination gloves from a single brand and Hughes et al (2013) discovered 0.103 cfu per glove of environmental bacteria, < 40 cfu per glove of skin bacteria and no pathogens on latex medical examination gloves from newly opened boxes.
Microorganisms on unused gloves from newly opened boxes are presumably present because of cross-contact with the environment during manufacturing or packing processes, or perhaps from contact with the cardboard used as primary packaging for most disposable gloves.
However, packaging material was ruled out as a source of contamination by Michaels et al, who discarded the “outer layer” of gloves which had been in contact with the box before performing their microbial tests (as per Appendix A. Supplementary data).
Instead, the source of microbial contamination of gloves is explained by Michaels et al to be contaminated water used in the glove manufacturing process. Water is used to wash the formers (moulds) which are dipped into liquid rubber or polymer to make the gloves.
Water is also used to rinse newly formed gloves before vulcanising in a process known as pre-leaching, and after vulcanising, in a process called leaching. Because gloves are turned inside out when they are removed from the formers, the surface that was in contact with the former becomes the food contact surface.
Does this mean that a microbially-contaminated former could be a source of microbes on the outer surfaces of gloves? Perhaps. Or perhaps not, given that vulcanising and leaching are high-temperature operations. The ability of microorganisms to survive the manufacturing process is not discussed in the paper.
So, with evidence that non-sterile disposable gloves have some microorganisms on their surfaces, the important question is: do these microorganisms pose significant risks to food consumers?
The authors of the new paper do not say. However, they do share stories of medical incidents caused by gloves, including one described by Sorio et al (2023), in which new disposable medical examination gloves were found to be the source of bacteria which caused 139 infections in a hospital over 13 months. Another, described by Stock et al (2011), revealed that Aspergillus mould on nonsterile disposable medical exam gloves “kept stored in their native packages” was the probable cause of the death of an infant from aspergillosis.
Microorganisms found by the authors on unused disposable gloves include enterotoxigenic strains of Bacillus cereus and B. anthracis, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridoides difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pneumonia (Michaels et al 2024). Most of these organisms are capable of causing foodborne illnesses.
However, the numbers mentioned in this new paper are, as in previous studies, low. The authors state that their statistical analyses indicate “with some degree of confidence that 105 to 106 CFU per 100 glove boxes could be possible.”
That’s up to one hundred thousand bacterial cells (colony forming units) per hundred gloves, equivalent to up to ten thousand cells (10^4) per glove. My understanding is that these figures include bacteria from the inside surface as well as the outside surface.
Are these quantities of bacterial cells on a glove a cause for concern in food handling? Will such numbers cause food contamination that is severe enough to lead to illnesses? Perhaps, but I think it’s unlikely.
Have contaminated gloves caused outbreaks? None are mentioned in the new paper, and I wasn’t able to find any outbreaks caused by microorganisms on fresh-from-the-pack disposable gloves. A review of outbreaks caused by retail food establishments (Lipcsei et al 2019), noted that most outbreaks (61%) were from norovirus, a pathogen linked to hand hygiene failures, and less than one-third of establishments with outbreaks had a written disposable glove use policy. But there was no suggestion that glove use was directly responsible for any outbreaks.
Should we be worried? Is this (yet another) new food safety hazard to add to our risk assessments? I don’t think so. A small quantity of bacteria on the surface of a glove is unlikely to make anyone sick unless it gets into food that is subsequently subjected to what us food safety nerds like to call ‘temperature abuse’. And such food could cause an outbreak even if it had not been in contact with gloves.
It’s worth noting that most of the authors of the paper are either current or former employees of a glove company, Eagle Protect, and that the paper specifically mentions glove manufacturers in Southeast Asia, on the topics of worker slavery, polluted water sources and inadequate worker health standards.
Takeaways for food professionals
Microbial tests on unused disposable gloves have discovered bacteria and fungi on the inner and outer surfaces of gloves, at levels of up to 10^4 cfu per glove. Organisms found on unused gloves have been linked to illnesses and deaths in clinical (hospital) settings, but not to foodborne illness outbreaks.
While the risk to food safety is probably low, it makes sense to avoid using gloves for processes that require extremely high levels of hygiene - use a non-hand process such as tongs instead. It is also a good idea to source gloves from reputable manufacturers that are subject to audits and meet certification standards. Such manufacturers are more likely to supply gloves with lower levels of surface microorganisms.
In short
Disposable food handling gloves are non-sterile and a new paper discusses the presence of bacteria on the surfaces of such gloves 🍏 Bacteria and fungi on unused gloves have been linked to hospital infections but not to outbreaks of foodborne illness 🍏 Consider replacing gloved hands with non-hand operations such as tongs for processes where hygiene is critical 🍏 Sourcing gloves from reputable manufacturers may help to reduce any risk from the presence of microorganisms on glove surfaces 🍏
Main source (other sources are referenced inline, using hyperlinks)
Michaels, B.S., Ayers, T., Brooks-McLaughlin, J., McLaughlin, R.J., Sandoval-Warren, K., Schlenker, C., Ronaldson, L. and Ardagh, S. (2024). Potential for Glove Risk Amplification via Direct Physical, Chemical, and Microbiological Contamination. Journal of food protection, pp.100283–100283. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2024.100283.
Food Safety News and Resources
This week’s food safety news round-up includes two free on-demand webinars for your edification, one on allergens and one on food defence, plus recall news and more.
Click the preview below to access it.
Anatomy of an alcohol fraud
Case studies are my most requested articles. Food fraud case studies allow food industry professionals to gain an insight into what food fraud looks like ‘in real life’; get an understanding of why criminals might choose to perpetrate food fraud and compare the consequences of different types of fraud.
Today’s case study comes from a recently published report on illicit trade by the World Trade Organisation. I unpacked some of the key ideas from the report in Issue 142. Some details of the fraud were anonymised in the report, including the country and affected brands.
Product type: Ingredient for alcoholic beverages.
Fraud type: Dilution.
Food safety impact: Severe.
How the fraud was perpetrated: Two people set up an unlicensed operation for making and selling ‘alcohol’ for beverage manufacturing. Instead of selling pure ethanol, they chose to dilute the ethanol with methanol, a liquid with similar properties but which is significantly more toxic than ethanol. The dilution rate was 50%.
What happened next: The two people sold their dangerous mixture to a distributor who marketed it as genuine alcohol fit for human consumption, selling it to beverage manufacturers. “Several thousand” litres were sold.
Purchasers of the adulterated alcohol included both legitimate beverage manufacturers and illicit manufacturers. Product made by the legitimate manufacturer(s) reached supermarket shelves. Illicit manufacturers sold products containing the ingredient through black market channels.
Consumers who drank the affected beverages suffered long-term health effects including blindness and kidney failure. Dozens died.
Enforcement and outcomes: Investigators prosecuted the two people who made the poisonous ingredient. Eighteen people who had traded the ingredient or made and sold illicit drinks containing the ingredient were also prosecuted. All were found guilty.
Source: WTO Report on Illicit Trade in Food and Food Fraud
Further reading
Learn more about the dangers of ‘fake’ and counterfeit alcoholic beverages from Interpol at Unsafe alcohol (interpol.int)
Just for Fun: How to Make a Pickle Sandwich
Americans are going crazy for pickle sandwiches. No, that’s not pickles on a sandwich, that’s a sandwich where a large whole pickled cucumber takes the place of the bread. One pickle sandwich seller says their products are so popular that they have gone from buying one pail of pickles per week to 70 pails each week.
The best filling for a pickle sandwich is honey turkey plus bacon, says Anthony Fiorito, proprietor of Seven Brother’s Gourmet in New York. If you want to make your own he recommends using a “decent-sized pickle”, coring out the centre of the pickle and serving dressing on the side.
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud news, horizon scanning and incident reports
In this week’s food fraud news:
📌 Warning for rapeseed/canola;
📌 Massive scandal in liquid food transport causes consumer panic;
📌 Popular soda brand accused of misleading consumers;
📌 Olive oil seizures, falsified Salmonella certificates for poultry and more.
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