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Fact Sheets > Physical Barriers
When to Use Physical Barriers
in Food Establishments
An invisible world of disease-causing germs can exist in the
skin crevices, fingernails, and knuckles of all food handlers’
hands. Even the most carefully washed and dried hand surfaces
are never as clean as the first disposable glove pulled from
the box.
Physical barriers between bare hands and ready-to-eat foods,
which include tongs, spatulas, bakery papers, and gloves, are
required to be used whenever handling restaurant foods that
will receive no further cooking.
Gloves and other barriers do not replace hand washing. Gloves
must be changed when job duties change. When doing jobs like
taking in delivery boxes or taking out the garbage, gloves
should be removed, hands washed, and new gloves put on before
going back to handling ready-to-eat food.
Like soiled gloves, be aware that multi-use tongs and spatulas
can also cross-contaminate “DONE” meats, plates, buns,
garnishes, etc., with the raw juices from adjacent meats being
prepared on the same grill. A good practice, therefore, is to
keep two utensils at the grill to separate the production
phase from the service phase of potentially hazardous foods.
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