Eagle Protect, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., launched a unique fingerprint process of glove analysis to further enhance glove safety in food environments.
Eagle Product partnered with B. Michaels Group, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., to highlight the lack of regulation of disposable glove manufacturing. In contrast to the strict FDA enforcement of food polymer packaging regulation, 100% of glove polymer factories supplying the U.S. food industry are based in Southeast Asia and are not subjected to rigorous FDA monitoring or scrutiny. There are few controls required for glove manufacturing in relation to the reliability and consistency of raw material ingredients, manufacturing processes and factory compliance. Gloves stated as FDA-compliant for food handling still have the possibility of containing or carrying toxic materials, which can compromise both the food being handled and the skin of the glove wearer.
“With the recent dramatic increases in food safety recalls and illnesses, there is an increasing focus on the traceability of food, as well as the products touching our food. Eagle’s proprietary testing creates a supply chain of full transparency and traceability to further protect their customers’ food safety programs,” says Steve Ardagh, chief executive officer. “Strictly speaking, the FDA compliance for food handling gloves does not mean gloves are clean or even intact and food safe.”
The multi-stage proprietary testing ensures Eagle’s gloves are produced in clean factories with rigorous quality control procedures in place, are free from toxic compounds and that the raw material “ingredients” are consistent in quality material makeup to the original manufacturing specifications.