Behind the Knife - tools, food, and the secret lives of chefs

To The Test: Recommended by the TSA

A Wellness Mat is Flubberoleum for your feet.

The airlines, airports, and TSA employees have been held under a microscope by the public and media over the last month or so.

Gripe as you must, but I’ve always wondered how the folks who have to stand there for long hours and frisk us — mentally and occasionally physically — deal under the pressure, let alone avoid varicose veins and sore feet.

The answer: They share a tool in common with professional chefs all over the world: The Wellness Mat, an anti-fatigue mat that’s widely used in hospitals and clinics and is the mat-of-choice for the TSA at airports all across the United States. Occasionally, they’ll make it to the other side of the X-ray belt, and they can often be found in those cozy little plexiglass booths where you may become even better acquainted with a TSA employee.

I'm more inclined to be barefoot than wear heels, but you get the point.

Wellness Mats are new to the consumer market, but they’ve been widely used in commercial kitchens, retail stores — and yes, airports — for decades. They’re resistant to heat, punctures, microbes, and stains.

Here at BehindTheKnife.com, I’ve been testing it in my own kitchen, sliding it from one side of the kitchen to the other — all of three feet wide — while washing dishes or cooking at the stove. But it won my heart late last year when we combined it with a ManPan test and used it to cushion the pan while driving over it in Ruby the hearse.

But I recently caught an old clip to Son of Flubber, a 1963 movie starring Fred MacMurray, featuring his character’s invention: Flubberoleum.

The way they were bouncing around on the floor was the way I feel when standing on my Wellness Mat.

For more details, you can proceed directly to the horse’s mouth. If you’re completely sold, head over here to get one of your very own. After all, it comes with with the BehindTheKnife.com Good Housekeeping guarantee. That, and Assistant Research Director Little Shit approves; she partakes of her morning cream while standing on the mat.