By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Q. I was recently eating at a fast-food restaurant and noticed its workers do not use gloves when handling food. About a year ago I brought up this concern to a manager because one of the workers had a bandage on and was still preparing food. She insisted that they are in compliance with health regulations.

A friend noticed the same thing. She's from the Mainland and she said all fast-food establishments there require gloves when handling food and that she gets grossed out when dining here in Hawai'i. Is Hawai'i under different regulations? Who can I contact at the Department of Health?

A. The restaurant manager was correct about being in compliance with state regulations, provided the employees keep their hands clean.

According to Brian Choy, program manager with the Department of Health's Sanitation Branch, Hawai'i does not require fast-food workers to wear gloves when preparing ready-to-eat food — sandwiches, tacos, burritos, salads, etc. — as long as there is an established hand-washing procedure.

However, he said, "the employee with a Band-Aid on her finger should have had a finger cot on the finger, with a band-aid or disposable glove on that hand."

Choy said gloves can give a false sense of safety. "Cooking staff may wear disposable gloves, and contaminate the gloves and continue working," he said.

He also pointed to cooking shows, where chefs generally do not use gloves when they cook. "What you see on TV is what is practiced in their kitchen," he said. "The critical good safety practice is frequent hand washing to prevent cross-contamination."

Choy said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a recommended Model Food Code, but it is not a national regulation. "The bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food has been vigorously debated at both the state and national level," he said.

States determine whether to adopt the federal code in whole or in part, or develop their own. Hawai'i adopted the food code in 1997. Hawai'i Revised Statute 11-12.25 relating to food preparation requires that "Food shall be prepared with the least possible manual contact, with suitable utensils, on surfaces that prior to use have been cleaned, rinsed and sanitized to prevent cross-contamination."

To find out more about the FDA regulations, visit http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodcode.html. You can also call the FDA Pacific Region Staff at 541-2662.

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