NYC Food Vendors Don’t Change Gloves Enough

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A recent study noted that 57 percent of 1,804 customer transactions observed did not involve the vendor changing gloves in between handling money and the next person’s order.

The majority of New York City mobile food vendors don’t change their gloves after exchanging money and before serving the next customer, as required by law, a new study has found.

Researchers from William Paterson University in New Jersey studied 10 food carts within 10 densely populated areas of Manhattan, a total of 100 carts. They found that 57 percent of 1,804 customer transactions observed did not involve the vendor changing gloves in between handling money and the next person’s order.

Study author Corey Basch describes the results as “eye-opening from a public health perspective” because of foodborne illness risk. “Being observant to the glove-changing behaviors of the vendors as well as overall hygiene is prudent and can reveal a great deal in a short time,” she said.

The New York City Health Code 81.13 requires that food vendors change gloves “after handling raw foods, performing tasks that do not involve food preparation or processing, handling garbage, or any other work where the gloves may have become soiled or contaminated.”

Melanie Neumann, The Acheson Group and Syed Hassan, PepsiCo

Are You Effectively Managing Supply Chain Risk?

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Melanie Neumann, The Acheson Group and Syed Hassan, PepsiCo

While there are many tools available to help food and beverage companies manage their supply chain, the integration of electronic systems in ensuring effective connectivity can be a challenge. During a Food Safety Tech conference, a panel of industry experts shared their perspectives on how to use tools to manage and communicate recalls, and the importance of focusing on a food safety management system. Melanie Neumann, executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Acheson Group, cited recall communication programs such as Rapid Recall Exchange and Recall Info Link. “They’re great programs in that they The 2015 Food Safety Consortium Conference (November 17-20, 2015 in Schaumburg, IL) features topics on supply chain risk and vulnerabilities. Register now.  communicate outbound, downstream to the recipients of recalled products. It gets [product] out of the hands of potential consumer purchasers and consumer consumption,” said Neumann. “Here’s what it doesn’t do: They have no way of knowing whether or not they’re communicating out all of the affected product. It still comes back to industry’s responsibility in effective supply chain management to know you’ve captured all of the affected recalled product that those systems are then used to communicate outbound.”

Food Safety and Sleepless Nights

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Trust in suppliers. From a global perspective, it’s about experiences. Do you trust your suppliers? Do we silo ourselves such that we forget we’re the ones who add value ? Never underestimate the importance of adding value. As business owners, it’s important to completely integrate yourself into the business. Break down the silos and integrate yourself into the business. You can’t expect everyone else to learn your language; you need to learn industry’s language. What else keeps food safety experts up at night?