Vinyl or Nitrile Gloves Tainting Wine?

[Rob_S]

Wondering if I should stop using medical nitrile or vinyl gloves to handle winemaking equipment and especially squeezing the must using a nylon bags. The gloves are blue in color, powder free, and even though it lists food application on the box, the blue color fades after a while and worried some of the dye could be leaching into wine due to alcohol and KMeta reacting with them?

If this is the case I could wash hands with star san and forget using the gloves. Have preferred using gloves for protecting hands from harsh chemicals such as Kmeta.

Don't believe I should dump the wine even though it might be a bit tainted, but if I should please let me know. I figure that over time with many batches of wine would probably not be a good idea.

Thanks

Rob

 

[cmason1957]

I don't think you are hurting anything wearing gloves, but imho, it is overkill and probably not necessary. Just spritz your hands real good with star San or kmeta sanitizing solution, wait a bit for it to work and have at it. I just use a spoon and the side of the bucket and keep my hands out of it.

 

[Rob_S]

Thanks, will just use Star San in the future. Stuff sure is wonderful. Works quicker at sanitizing than Kmeta, and much easier on the lungs and throat. I've send an email to the glove company to check on the leaching of the dye. Don't want to have to dump the wine since got over 10 gallons.

 

[botigol]

Even if the gloves are breaking down from exposure to something or a combination of a number of things, it seems doubtful that anything could leach out of the gloves given the small amount of time that it is in contact with any one element.

That said, "after a while" is ambiguous. Are you re-using gloves? If so, how long have they been in use? Were they exposed to UV light at any time during or between uses?

I will throw another vote towards the use of StarSan for most applications.

 

[Rob_S]

Yesterday I spent about 8 hours using the same pair of gloves from preparation of the equipment/sanitation with Kmeta, getting the basket press sanitized, the hose, the carboys, pressing the grapes, and finally pressing some left over pulp/skins by hand, maybe I could have put all of it into the press, first time I used a press so will know better next time. But staying on the topic, looks like the gloves started to break down in terms of their dye by then, might have been the alcohol in the wine or both Kmeta and alcohol. I could have changed pairs of gloves. But now I think I can still use the gloves to protect my hands from Kmeta, and if I press by hand, I can simply use Star San on my hands without the gloves and prevent any issues in the future. I guess the amount would be small, but over years of making wine this way it could be another story.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Rodnboro]

I use the food service type. They are cheap enough to use several during the day.