When handling ready-to-eat food, what must food handlers always do?

Using single-use gloves when handling ready-to-eat food is a critical practice for ensuring food safety. Gloves create a barrier between food and contaminants that might be present on a food handler's hands, helping to prevent the spread of pathogens and reducing the risk of foodborne illness. This precaution is particularly important since ready-to-eat foods do not undergo further cooking, which means any contaminants introduced at this stage can pose an immediate health risk to consumers.

While using utensils instead of hands is a practice that can reduce direct contact with food, it is not always feasible or required in all situations, especially for items that need to be handled more delicately. Rinsing hands with cold water alone does not effectively clean them and would not ensure proper hygiene before handling food. Additionally, covering hands with long sleeves does not provide a hygienic barrier; instead, it could lead to additional contamination if sleeves touch food or surfaces. Thus, wearing single-use gloves is the most consistent and reliable method for maintaining the safety of ready-to-eat foods.