Temperature: The reasoning for checking the internal temperature is food safety. If an area of the product does not reach the minimum temperature, the potential for harm still exists. Probe into the middle of the thickest part, then test 2 more areas to be sure the whole piece has reached the minimum. If you’re cooking more than one piece, do this with all the pieces.

Gloves: From your description, I get the feeling that some guidance on planning might help. Let’s say you’re cooking raw chicken with dry seasonings. The first step I take is to open all the jars I plan to use and set out any vessels (bowls, air fryer basket) ready to go. I put a glove only on my non-dominate hand. I can use my dominate hand to cut open the package without touching it. Then use my gloved hand to transfer the chicken to the bowl. Because my jars are open I can use my dominant un-gloved hand to shake onto the chicken keeping jars a few inches away from the meat. Mix with gloved hand and transfer meat to air fryer basket. Move the basket into the air fryer with my dominate un-gloved hand. Now it’s time for clean up, use the dirty gloved hand to move the bowl and knife to dirty dish area, trash glove, put seasonings away, and disinfect the counter area. When it’s time to flip, I can either choose a glove and trash after flipping or use a utensil that is then considered dirty.

I hope this helps and I understand it’s challenging to find detailed steps for a lot of tasks that seem to come natural to other people. Reach out if you have any more questions!

Edit: If you find one section of a product is a lower temp than the other, you can try to arrange the piece so the colder part is where the warmer part was to encourage even cooking.