It’s a widespread belief that wearing gloves while handling food helps to prevent the spread of germs and disease. In fact, it’s a safety habit employed by most fast food chains around the world in an effort to maintain high hygiene standards. But it turns out that wearing gloves can be instead one of the most effective ways to spread contamination rather than stop it in its tracks.

Fresh Foods Department Manager and Culinary Institute of America’s Timothy Fisher recently explained the concept to Food Beast. “People wearing gloves touch all sorts of things besides food and continue to use the gloves. Technically they should change gloves after they’ve touched anything that isn’t food related, and most health standards say you should also wash your hands before putting on new gloves. But that takes so much time!”

Which means that in order for the gloves to work as effectively as intended, that washing your hands thoroughly is just as important as glove use – the two work in tandem.

“Most consumers and most entry level food workers have this belief for some reason that gloves mean clean. But proper hand washing techniques negate the transmission of illness,” Timothy continues. “How many times have you seen someone take their gloves off nearby or over your food? Ever think about how powdery and sweaty their hands are? Ever think about how that glove snapping off is probably spraying micro bits of that person’s sweat and glove powder into your food? If you haven’t you will now.”

Lack of correct hand washing, as well as failure to notice a rip or tear within the glove (which supposedly occurs 50 percent of the time) means that bacteria is easily spread, even with the wearing of the health and safety accessories.

“[Gloves are] creating (in my professional opinion) a culture of uncleanliness because the average person thinks gloves actually replace hand washing,” says Timothy. His suggestion? Sticking to good old soap and water is paramount.