Protect — Commercial Kitchens
Guard-Tex self-adhering tape protects fingers in commercial kitchens without adhesive that can contaminate food. Visible blue option for HACCP compliance. Stays on through wet work, heat, and constant hand washing.
Commercial kitchens destroy hands. Prep cooks make thousands of knife cuts per shift — and inevitably cut themselves. Line cooks handle 400°F sauté pans and reach into steam tables. Dishwashers submerge their hands in hot chemical water for 8-12 hours. The result is an industry where cracked, bleeding fingers are considered normal — and where those cracked fingers handle food that goes to customers.
Standard adhesive bandages are a food safety nightmare. They fall off in wet environments. The adhesive dissolves in water and leaves residue on food contact surfaces. When they do fall off, they become a physical contaminant in the food — the single most common foreign object complaint in commercial kitchens. Even blue detectable bandages rely on adhesive that fails in wet kitchen conditions.
Adhesive bandages in my kitchen were a food safety liability. They'd fall off in the dish pit and we'd find them in the rinse water. Guard-Tex stays on and there's no adhesive to contaminate anything.— Executive Chef, 200-seat Restaurant
Guard-Tex eliminates the adhesive problem entirely. No adhesive means nothing to dissolve, nothing to contaminate, and nothing to fall off into food. The cohesive bond actually strengthens in wet conditions. And the visible blue option makes it detectable if a piece does separate — meeting HACCP visual detection requirements without relying on adhesive that will fail.
Food-Safe
Guard-Tex bonds to itself through cohesive technology — zero adhesive contacts skin or food surfaces. The blue option provides visual detectability for HACCP compliance. Cotton gauze breathes and wicks moisture during hot, wet kitchen work.
Prep cook knife work. Mandoline cuts, paring knife slips, and repetitive chopping — prep is where most kitchen injuries happen. Guard-Tex on knife-hand fingertips provides a cotton barrier against blade contact. It won't stop a direct cut, but it catches glancing blows and reduces the severity of the constant minor cuts that accumulate during high-volume prep. The tape stays on through vegetable washing, citrus juice, and constant wet-dry cycling.
Line cook burns. Reaching across burners, grabbing sauté handles, plating from steam tables — line cooks accumulate burn after burn on fingertips and forearms. Guard-Tex provides a cotton buffer against incidental contact burns. It insulates fingertips during plating and protects existing burns from further damage during the shift.
Dishwasher hand protection. Dish pit work is the most destructive kitchen job for hands. Hot water, chemical sanitizer, and mechanical abrasion from scrubbing crack skin within days. Guard-Tex on cracked fingertips creates a cotton barrier that keeps chemicals out of cracks while allowing them to heal. The tape holds through full submersion — the cohesive bond strengthens in water.
Wet kitchen work. Every kitchen task involves water — washing produce, draining pasta, cleaning stations. Adhesive tape fails within minutes in wet kitchen conditions. Guard-Tex holds through complete submersion, hot water rinses, and the constant wet-dry-wet cycling that defines kitchen work. It actually grips tighter when wet.
Food safety compliance. Guard-Tex blue tape provides visual detectability required by HACCP food safety programs. No adhesive means no adhesive residue on food contact surfaces. No adhesive means the tape cannot dissolve into food. The woven cotton construction makes it unlikely to fragment the way adhesive bandage pads do when they break apart in water.
| Feature | Guard-Tex | Work Gloves | Bare Hands | Adhesive Tape / Bandages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falls off in water | ✓ No — bonds tighter wet | ✗ Yes — adhesive dissolves | N/A | ✗ Yes — slides off immediately |
| Adhesive contamination risk | ✓ None — zero adhesive | ✗ High — residue on surfaces | N/A | ✗ Adhesive transfers to food |
| HACCP detectability | ✓ Blue option available | ✓ Blue detectable versions | ✗ Not visible | ✗ Not designed for kitchen |
| Stays through hand washing | ✓ Cohesive bond holds | ✗ Fails after 2-3 washes | N/A | ✗ Washes off |
| Heat resistance | ✓ Cotton — handles kitchen heat | Varies | ✗ Burns directly | ✗ Adhesive melts in heat |
Wrap any cut, cracked, or vulnerable fingertips with two overlapping passes of Guard-Tex. For knife-hand protection, focus on index finger, thumb, and middle finger of the cutting hand. Use blue tape for HACCP compliance.
Pro tip: Keep a roll at each station — prep, line, and dish pit. Making tape accessible means people actually use it.Guard-Tex holds through hand washing, wet prep, heat exposure, and the constant wet-dry cycling of service. One application lasts through a typical 6-8 hour shift. If tape wears through during heavy dishwashing, rewrap over the worn spot.
Pro tip: Apply on dry skin for the strongest initial bond. But wet application works fine in a kitchen emergency.Guard-Tex blue tape provides visual detectability. If a piece of tape separates from a hand (rare, since it bonds to itself rather than skin), the blue color is visible against all food types. No adhesive means no invisible residue on cutting boards, prep surfaces, or plating areas.
Pro tip: Document Guard-Tex in your HACCP plan as your adhesive-free wound covering protocol.Peel off tape at shift end. Zero residue on hands, zero adhesive on surfaces. Skin underneath is cleaner and more protected than it would be after a shift of bare-hand work or dissolved adhesive bandage residue.
Pro tip: Cooks with chronic hand cracking should tape before every shift as preventive protection, not just after injuries.
Best Seller for Trades
The go-to for tradespeople. Black hides jobsite dirt. 3/4" width wraps fingers perfectly. Self-adhering, non-stretch, woven cotton. One roll lasts 2-3 work weeks.
Shop Now Wholesale Pricing"Adhesive bandages in my kitchen were a food safety liability. They'd fall off in the dish pit and we'd find them in the rinse water. Guard-Tex stays on and there's no adhesive to contaminate anything."— Executive Chef, 200-seat Restaurant
"I'm a prep cook and I cut myself almost every shift. Band-aids last 10 minutes in a wet kitchen. Guard-Tex lasts my whole shift. The blue tape makes my chef happy too — HACCP compliant."— Prep Cook, Hotel Banquet Kitchen
"My dishwashers' hands were cracking and bleeding into the dish water. Guard-Tex on cracked fingers keeps the chemicals out and lets the skin heal while they work. Healthier hands, safer kitchen."— Kitchen Manager, Healthcare Cafeteria
"I've worked sauté for 15 years. Burn scars on every finger. Guard-Tex gives me just enough buffer on my plating hand to prevent the daily contact burns that used to be part of the job."— Line Cook, Fine Dining
Guard-Tex self-adhering tape contains zero adhesive, making it safe for commercial kitchen use. No adhesive means no residue on food contact surfaces and no risk of adhesive dissolving into food. The blue option provides visual detectability for HACCP compliance.
Guard-Tex uses cohesive bonding that strengthens in water. It holds through hand washing, wet prep, dish pit submersion, and the constant wet-dry cycling of kitchen work. One application typically lasts a full 6-8 hour shift.
Guard-Tex blue tape provides visual detectability against all food types. The absence of adhesive eliminates adhesive residue contamination risk on food contact surfaces. Document Guard-Tex in your HACCP plan as your adhesive-free wound covering protocol.
Guard-Tex on cracked fingertips creates a cotton barrier between damaged skin and hot chemical dishwater. The tape holds through full submersion and protects existing cracks from deepening while allowing healing. It's the only finger protection that survives dish pit conditions.
Many professional kitchens are switching from adhesive bandages to self-adhering tape like Guard-Tex because it eliminates the food contamination risk of adhesive bandages falling off in food. The tape bonds to itself — not to skin — so it won't contaminate food contact surfaces.
Yes. Guard-Tex under nitrile or latex food service gloves provides wound coverage without the adhesive that causes gloves to stick and tear on removal. The cotton gauze also manages moisture under gloves, reducing the maceration that worsens hand cracking.
Self-adhering tape. No adhesive on skin. Made in Elk Grove Village, IL since 1935.
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