Do Thicker Gloves Improve Food Safety?

You’re buying disposable food service gloves and want the best protective gloves for your business. You check your list... 

• No phthalates, No BPA
• PVC-free
• Powder & Latex-free

Check, check and check. You’re well on your way to purchasing the best food-safe nitrile gloves.

There’s another factor to remember - glove thickness. When buying disposable nitrile gloves it’s easy to have the misconception that a thicker glove will provide extra strength and better protection. Thick gloves can be deceiving and give you a false sense of security if manufactured from cheap raw materials. Glove strength is highly proportional to the quality of raw materials. 

4 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING THICKER DISPOSABLE GLOVES

• Purchasing from reputable suppliers with quality control procedures in place and known raw material content of gloves assures glove quality and protection.
  

• Wearing thick gloves does not necessarily increase protection. If cheap raw materials are used during manufacturing, glove strength and flexibility are compromised. This subsequently increases the rate of punctures, rips and tears.
• Review the glove strength and elongation specifications before purchasing. Thicker doesn’t always equal stronger or more resilient.

• If cheap raw materials are used, gloves must be manufactured with increased thickness to compensate for the compromised strength. This added thickness can cause restricted hand mobility, musculoskeletal fatigue, cramping and injury to hands and arms. Read more in Disposable glove quality matters...because workers do.
• Data shows safe and confident workers with good fitting and functioning hand protection have higher rates of job satisfaction and lower rates of absenteeism and turnover.
  

• Glove waste and disposal costs are a significant cost to any business. They can be increased unnecessarily due to the misconception that thicker gloves are stronger and provide better protection.
• A quality glove will fail less, further reducing waste cost and time lost switching gloves.

Continually evolving advances in manufacturing and raw materials will lead to stronger and more durable yet thinner gloves. Your workers deserve the best and most appropriate disposable protective gloves.

By switching our customers from vinyl gloves to our Light & Tough nitrile gloves, we saved over 5,000 tons of waste last year! Read more about the environmental benefits of purchasing from Eagle Protect.

Chat with an Eagle expert today and find out how you can better protect your customers, your workers and your brand while potentially saving money and waste.