COVID-19 is the designation of the Novel Coronavirus that has caused a major pandemic this year. Every health department in the United States (Local, county, state), has created guidance and protocols for restaurants and food establishments to follow to ensure a safe dining experience (if allowed to be open for business).

On this blog, I will discuss issues that need to be taken care of during this pandemic to ensure that you are taking care of your guests and your employees during this unusual time.

Before the outbreak, restaurants were required to keep a clean and sanitary establishment for the guests. Now, it has taken on more of a necessity to keep people safe.

With an illness causing virus that can spread from person to person the way that COVID-19 does, it is imperative that food establishments create a cleaning and sanitation protocol to keep employees and guests safe, while still being able to provide a good experience and a meal free from contamination.

The use of approved cleaning and sanitation supplies is one of the most important elements to keep the restaurant safe. Constant cleaning is essential as well; however, it remains to be seen if food establishments have added constant cleaning to restrooms to keep Coronavirus from spreading in that location. Today’s discussion is about glove use by servers.

Servers have a great many functions depending on the establishment. In some restaurants, Darden restaurants for instance, servers are responsible for serving guests and have very little work outside that goal; however, many other restaurants require their servers to restock supplies, roll silverware inside the napkins, in addition to the serving of guests. Whichever situation, the main goal of the server is to be the focal point of service for the guest, and I will take you through a basic view of what it takes to serve just one table.

For this example, it should be understood that the server is wearing a face mask and gloves as part of the restaurant appeal to keep their guests safe. After the guests are seated, the server would greet the guests, talk about the menu, offer specials, and so on. They may take just a drink order or they many take the entire food and beverage order, depending on the readiness of the guests. In our example they will go ahead and take the full order and remove the menus. After, and depending on the establishment, they would go to the register system and enter the order for the kitchen and and bar drinks (if available).

They would then proceed to the beverage station to make drinks and take them and any other items to the table as required (salads, bread, etc). As the guests try to enjoy themselves, the server will also be taking care of other guests and other tables depending on the number of tables they are required to take care of during their shift. Food is then brought out when ready, desserts may or may not be ordered along with after dinner drinks, and finally the final check arrives.

What I just described to you is the basics of being a server at a restaurant. There is a LOT of work involved that may or may not change the above scenario, but suffice to say, this is the basic situation. So I ask you, when during that scenario did the server change their gloves? When did they wash their hands?

However you answer the questions I just posed, odds are a majority of you will be incorrect. So lets start with the regulations regarding glove use. The FDA food code, which is the basis for almost every state and local health code states that:

“…SINGLE-USE gloves shall be used for only one task such as working with READY-TO-EAT FOOD or with raw animal FOOD, used for no other purpose, and discarded when damaged or soiled, or when interruptions occur in the operation”.

(FDA Food Code 2013 pg 74 & 2017 pg 77)

There are also other times when a glove is “required” to be worn, such as if their is an injury or contaminant (i.e. boil or puss producing item) located on the individuals hand. Gloves are designed to be single use, used for the task at hand, then removed. Under this regulation, each task that the server does, requires them to change their gloves. So in the above example, gloves needed to be changed after each individual task. To break down when gloves would require to be changed:

1. The server takes the full order and removes the menus.
2. go to the register system and enter the order for the kitchen and bar drinks (if available).
3. They would then proceed to the beverage station to make drinks and take them and any other items to the table as required (salads, bread, etc).
   1. If the server makes the salads, that would be a separate task as well.
4. As the guests try to enjoy themselves, the server will also be taking care of other guests and other tables depending on the number of tables they are required to take care of during their shift.
5. Food is then brought out when ready
6. desserts may or may not be ordered along with after dinner drinks
7. finally the final check arrives.

So as you can see, just for this example of “ONE” table, the server should, by regulations, be changing gloves at least seven to eight times.

What about handwashing? If you think that changing the gloves will keep the employee from washing hands, that would be incorrect. Food Safety regulations state that hands MUST be washed before putting on a pair of gloves. (FDA Food code 2013 pg 48 & 2017 pg 50) This means that each time the server is required to be changing gloves, they are also required to be washing their hands. That is a great deal of time for handwashing and changing gloves.

By the way, if you ever see someone blow into a glove to open it up to make it easier to put on, realize they just contaminated the glove and would need to start over with washing their hands.

So with all this information, what should be considered the best practices in this situation. In this situation, and in my professional opinion, is that gloves SHOULD NOT be used by servers; however, the servers should practice and be more diligent in handwashing.

In “SOME’ jurisdictions around the country, it MAY be possible to use hand sanitizer when the hands are not actually soiled (physical visible contamination). The restaurant should check with the local regulating agency to see if this is an acceptable alternative to handwashing as depicted in the above example. Because this particular solution is not currently approved nationwide, I cannot provide this as an actual solution to keeping guests safe; however, I would gladly offer my services to speak with local health officials if you or your restaurant would like to utilize me as an expert.

If you have any questions about anything that is presented in these lessons, or have a question about anything regarding food safety, please feel free to contact me.

Check Dr. Mc Keown’s blog daily to see what information we have to share during September, the #National #Foodsafety #Education Month, #NFSM.