“They’re for cleaning toilet” – M’sian Apologises After MOH Calls Her Out for Using Yellow Gloves to Prepare Food

During Ramadan, Muslims in Malaysia and all around the world are fasting from dawn to dusk in observance of the holy month in the Islamic calendar.

Accordingly, this period is also when many Malaysians try out cooking different dishes for breaking fast, with a flurry of content on recipes posted on social media platforms by food content creators during Ramadan.

Right recipe, wrong gloves

With that being said, one particular food recipe video created by a local content creator backfired recently due to a huge error Malaysians found in her video while she was preparing the food.

Sharing the recipe for Air Asam Siam or “Thai Asam Sauce” on her TikTok Account, Dania Sedek’s video has since caught the attention of Malaysians due to the gloves she was using while preparing the sauce. 

The video was reposted on X (formerly Twitter) by the TikTok Berguna X account, who said that the Air Asam Siam is perfect for fish, beef or grilled chicken.

You can watch the video here:

Resepi air asam siam oleh Diana Sidek.

Boleh guna resepi ini untuk buat kuah cicah ikan, daging atau ayam bakar. ? pic.twitter.com/xomDEZ4t2o

— TikTok Berguna (@TikTokBerguna) March 14, 2024

Yellow gloves are not meant for food preparation

While the Air Asam Siam is the perfect sauce for fish, beef or grilled chicken, what’s not perfect is the yellow gloves Dania used in preparing the sauce. 

In the replies to the TikTok Berguna X post, many netizens point out that the the gloves aren’t food compliant and shouldn’t be used for preparing food. 

Besides that, many Malaysians also asserted that the yellow gloves are meant to use for cleaning toilets and that she cleaning up the glove before preparing the Air Asam Siam was in vain.

MOH urges for the use of nitrile gloves when handling food 

In fact, the usage of the yellow gloves also caught the attention of the Ministry of Health (MOH) which quote posted the Dania Sedek video to elaborate why the gloves aren’t suitable for handling food.

MOH asserted,

“We would like to inform that the usage of yellow gloves are for cleaning and is not suitable for handling food. Nitrile (powder-free-glove) gloves are the safest type of glove to handle food as it doesn’t leave behind any stains.

“To avoid cross contiminatino, the gloves should only be used once.”

MOH added that they have Food Grade Certifications for materials in contact with food, including gloves. Furthermore, the Ministry said that industry players can display the certification logo on their products, with more information available here.

As of the time of writing, the post by MOH has garnered over 10,800 reposts and 11,500 likes.

Dania has since issued an apology for the mistake

Following the post by MOH going viral, Dania has since taken to her TikTok account to post a video apologising for her error and explained that it was an honest mistake.

In the video, Dania said that she was made aware of MOH’s comments about her using yellow gloves by one of her team members.

She then immediately apologised for the error and admitted that she was in the wrong. Dania asserted,

“I really thought that the yellow gloves were food grade. Yellow is also our brand’s colour, I like the colour yellow.”

She further vowed to do better in the future and revealed that she had thrown away the yellow gloves after finding out they’re not food grade.

Dania then thanked MOH for the reminder and hoped that the post would be a lesson to others in the food and beverages business to be more careful in the future.

You can watch the apology video here:

@daniasedek Replying to @nia?️ ♬ Sholawat Badar – Muhajirlamkaruna

So, what do you guys think of the whole situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Also read: WATCH: Rock-Hard Kuih Keria Bought at Ramadan Bazaar Gets Thrown at a Wall But Remains Intact