The rule

Never touch ready-to-eat food with bare hands. Ready-to-eat means buns, bread, pastries, salad, cut fruit, cooked meat, desserts and ice.

Use one of these instead:

  • Tongs, spatulas or spoons
  • Deli tissue or waxed paper
  • An ice scoop with a handle (never a cup or glass; keep the scoop outside the ice)
  • Single-use gloves

Sources: Food Code 3-301.11 · Food Code 1-201.10(B) (ready-to-eat food includes bakery items) · Source protocols: utensils for taking food (ice scoop, never a cup or glass)

Using gloves the right way

  • Wash your hands before every new pair.
  • One pair, one task.
  • Throw them away when torn, dirty, or when you stop the task.
  • Change at least every 4 hours on the same task.
  • Never wash, rinse or reuse single-use gloves. Don't blow into them.
  • Don't wear gloves outside the food area and come back in them.
  • Use nitrile or vinyl gloves, not latex.

Sources: Food Code 3-304.15 · Source protocols: changing gloves (every 4 hours is common practice; no latex)

Easy-to-miss times to change gloves

  • Raw meat, poultry, fish or eggs, then ready-to-eat food
  • Raw poultry, then raw beef or fish
  • A dish with peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish or sesame, then an allergen-free one
  • Taking cash, a card or a phone payment
  • Touching your face, hair, glasses or phone, or sneezing into your hand
  • Picking up something from the floor
  • Trash, doors, cooler lids, boxes that sat on the floor
  • Sanitizer, cleaning chemicals or a wiping cloth
  • Scooping ice after any other task

Sources: Food Code 2-301.14 · Food Code 3-304.15

If bare hands touch ready-to-eat food

  • Throw the food away and log it.
  • Bare-hand contact is allowed only with the county's approval ahead of time and written procedures kept on site. Never where a highly susceptible group is served.
  • Food trucks: Utah's truck rule has no approval path for bare-hand contact.

Sources: Food Code 3-301.11(D)–(E) · R392-102-14(1)–(3) · Source protocols: bare-hand contact log (discard and log without county approval)

The rules behind it

  • No bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food. Use tongs, deli tissue, waxed paper or gloves; single-use gloves for one task; bare-hand contact only with county approval and records. Food Code 3-301.11, 3-304.15; R392-102-14(1)–(3) (trucks: no bare-hand variance)