Oregon restaurant workers have been in the limelight recently for refusing to follow the no-bare-hands rule that was supposed to go into effect on July 1st. They claimed that the new rule, which prohibits food handlers from contacting ‘exposed’ ready-to-eat food with bare hands, is not actually safe. They raised several complaints against the no-bare-hands rule saying that the use of gloves gave ‘food service handlers a false sense of cleanliness and created more public waste since the gloves are designed to be discarded. But, is the no-bare-hands rule really necessary or not?

Restaurants are public places where people go to eat. They should be kept hygienic and so should the food that is being served. Sometimes, unreasonable people who get employed in restaurants as food handlers don’t pay much attention to the cleanliness and safety of the food they are handling, leading to diseases such as cholera and typhoid. It is with these facts in mind that the no-bare-hands rule was made and disposable gloves introduced. With such gloves, the ignorance of some workers is corrected by not allowing their unclean hands to come into direct contact with food. This may be a long shot in ensuring that food is handled safely in restaurants, but at least it is a good start. So the Oregon restaurant workers should just follow the rule and see how helpful it would be in serving their customers with safe and clean food. The issue on there being an increase in public waste because of the disposable gloves can be solved by having efficient and effective methods of getting rid of public waste.

In conclusion, the Oregon restaurant workers should be provided with relevant information on the benefits of using disposable gloves when handling food and made to see the light since the no-bare-hands rule is there to stay.