US-based inventor Peter Delgrosso points out that consuming finger foods can sometimes be a hygienically suboptimal process – with a (timely) reminder that, in the act of eating finger foods ;
“Germs, bacteria, and other harmful elements (e.g., microorganisms, viruses, chemicals, etc.) on our hands and fingers can then make their way into the body.”
“There is therefore a need to provide a way with which to consume finger foods as intended without the accompanying hygiene and cleanliness issues. Specifically, there is a need to allow consumers the ability to use their fingers when eating finger foods without having to wash their hands before eating because of concern for ingesting harmful elements, and also after eating because residual elements transferred from the finger foods to consumer’s fingers.”
See : ‘Finger Sheaths’ , United States Patent 10,645,983, May 12, 2020
Note: Readers may spot some similarities with another US patent, issued a couple of months ago, see: Fingers-Only Glove [new patent]
Research research by Martin Gardiner