California’s short-lived law requiring food service workers to wear disposable gloves or use utensils when handling ready-to-eat food is about to be repealed and a less-restrictive law put in its place. The California Senate voted 32-0 on Thursday to approve AB-2130, the legislation repealing the so-called “glove law,” which had just gone into effect on Jan. 1. The California State Assembly already passed a repeal this spring. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. Although 41 states have “no-bare-hands” food code rules to help reduce the transmission of foodborne or other illnesses, members of the California restaurant and bar industry objected to the new law because they found it confusing, ineffective, cumbersome and expensive. California Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), a pediatrician who sponsored both the original law and the repeal legislation, said he wants to focus on food safety but also be responsive to food service workers’ concerns. “It’s not about whether you wear gloves or not,” Pan reportedly said. “It’s about how clean the surfaces (touching food) are. We need to have the conversation go back to, ‘This is about food safety.’” The state’s food safety code will now revert to earlier language encouraging workers to “minimize” any direct contact with food using their bare hands. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infected food service workers touching food with their bare hands is a common way to transmit Norovirus and other illnesses.
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