Are employees required to wear gloves when preparing food?
Bare hand contact with any food, including ice, that does not receive heat treatment prior to serving is a violation of the sanitary code. Compliance can be accomplished with the use of suitable utensils, such as tongs or spoons, deli paper, napkins, or sanitary gloves. Examples of tasks in which hand contact must be eliminated are sandwich making, slicing cold cuts and cheeses, tossing salads, and assembling fresh fruit or vegetable platters. One should always be aware that the same cross-contamination problems associated with contaminated bare hands (i.e., transfer of bacteria from raw food to ready-to-eat food) can occur with inappropriate glove use; therefore, if gloves are used, care must be taken to ensure they are changed at appropriate times, such as after touching raw food or non-food items and before touching ready-to-eat food.
