---
title: "Sanitary or Scary? Vinyl Gloves Used at Major QSR Restaurants Have Been Linked to Health Risks"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/040849f1-91f0-4622-9db9-41971ea546dc
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/sanitary-or-scary-vinyl-gloves-used-at-major-qsr-restaurants-have-been-linked-to-health-risks-2710730
category: "QSR"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "QSR"
published: 2019-08-14T22:17:02.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:29:53.140Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/5b3549ffd12eb5500ab66b584a6029847527.jpg
---

# Sanitary or Scary? Vinyl Gloves Used at Major QSR Restaurants Have Been Linked to Health Risks

**TL;DR:** Vinyl gloves used at certain McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's locations have been found to contain phthalates, which are linked to health risks. The discovery is part of a larger trend of QSR restaurants moving towards sustainable and natural packaging options.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-08-14. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/sanitary-or-scary-vinyl-gloves-used-at-major-qsr-restaurants-have-been-linked-to-health-risks-2710730).*

## Story

Obviously, gloves are meant to keep fast-food operations safe and sanitary, but it looks like that might not always be the case. A national group of environmental organizations called the Coalition for Safer Food Processing and Packaging recently discovered dangerous chemicals called phthalates in vinyl gloves used at certain McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's locations.

The report comes right on the heels of The New Food Economy’s investigation, which found that the compostable fiber bowls used at chains including Chipotle and Sweetgreen contain chemicals that have no known half-life and have been linked to cancer.

With more and more stories like this coming out, sustainable and all-natural packaging are slowly becoming some of the hottest trends in QSR and fast casual. In addition to last year’s epic plastic straw ban, KFC recently committed to sourcing 100% recoverable or reusable plastics for consumer-facing products by 2025.

Customers are rightfully demanding safe and natural food options, with more than one-third of consumers claiming that toxic chemicals are their biggest food-related concern.

Although McDonald's is jumping aboard the green movement, it looks the problem at hand might be right under their noses.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- McDonald's (company)
- Wendy's (company)
- Burger King (company)
- KFC (company)
- Chipotle (company)
- Sweetgreen (company)
- qsr trends (topic)
- sustainable packaging (topic)
- health risks (topic)
- vinyl gloves (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/sanitary-or-scary-vinyl-gloves-used-at-major-qsr-restaurants-have-been-linked-to-health-risks-2710730). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/040849f1-91f0-4622-9db9-41971ea546dc).