When it comes to cooking gloves, one essential issue we have to pay close attention to is temperature. The purpose of these gloves is to prevent us from suffering burns when handling kitchen utensils while at the same time keeping our hands comfortable.
One agency performs heat tests to measure the temperature that these gloves can withstand. This agency is called Intertek and is in charge of establishing the quality standards for this type of flame-retardant article.
What is Intertek?
Intertek is one of the most important providers of Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the world. It has over a thousand laboratories and offices in over a hundred countries and employs around 42,000 people.
This agency is redefining the concept of quality control assurance due to its excellence and high standards. Intertek's work is not limited only to the physical control of the products it qualifies, but to the entire value-added chain, from testing to certification.
Intertek's clients recognize this entity as a guarantee that gives their products sufficient credibility to compete in the market with a highly reputable backing.
Through Intertek, companies worldwide can evaluate their products and raw materials for compliance with the regulatory, safety and quality framework applicable in each country.
What is the maximum temperature these gloves can withstand?
According to the quality standards currently in force, the performance level of gloves is measured in 4 stages, as we can see in the following table:
Source: Intertek test report
As shown, the maximum temperature reached in this test was 500c (932f) for a time equal to or greater than 15 seconds, which is the time used as a reference for this product.
What is happening in the cooking glove sales market?
It is essential to highlight that this temperature is an important element when marketing the product. Competitors use this number to add value to their brand and thus differentiate themselves from the competition.
For this reason, many companies have chosen to alter this number in their brand advertisements, putting values of up to 800c (1,472f). This, on the one hand, harms consumers, who are buying gloves motivated by false advertising and are putting their physical integrity at risk. If they use these gloves based on these false technical specifications, they run the risk of suffering severe burns since, as we have seen, it is not possible to reach this temperature for the required time.
On the other hand, it harms honest sellers who do reflect the real values, since a buyer without the necessary knowledge will look at the price and the degrees that the glove can withstand and will, of course, choose the one with the highest resistance.
What should we do when buying cooking gloves online?
The agencies in charge of establishing quality and safety standards are essential entities to ensure the distribution of safe products for consumers. We are not talking here about a poor quality T-shirt that will deteriorate in a week, which is harmful to the consumer but does not go beyond that. We are talking about the fact that there are products on the market whose use can cause severe injury to their users.
For this reason, we must denounce those brands or sellers bringing heat-resistant cooking gloves to market under specifications that do not conform to reality to differentiate themselves from their competitors to sell more.
And those marketplaces that host this type of seller should increase their security measures to ensure that all the products they have in their listings comply with the requirements and quality standards in force and that they are not using unfair tactics to increase their sales.