Baylen Linnekin on California Requiring Food Workers To Wear Gloves

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Gloved hands
f1uffster (Jeanie) / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Chefs and bartenders in California are aghast over a new law that prevents them from touching the food they will serve to customers. State food handling regulations previously required foodservice employees to "minimize bare hand and arm contact with non-prepackaged food that is in a ready-to-eat-form[.]" The new law "instead requires food employees to minimize bard hand and arm contact with exposed food that is not in a ready-to-eat form." The "ready-to-eat" terminology means "food that is edible without additional preparation to achieve food safety."

That sounds complex.

And, writes Baylen Linnekin, while most may escape the new requirements, they still face burdensome paperwork and the threat of selective enforcement.