A food employee is wearing single-use gloves to assemble sandwiches. After 90 minutes of continuous work she changes from making sandwiches to slicing tomatoes for a salad. What is the correct glove practice?

Explanation

California Retail Food Code HSC §113961 and §113973 treat single-use gloves as a barrier that becomes contaminated during use; the gloves are not washable. Gloves must be discarded and hands washed before donning fresh gloves whenever the employee: (1) changes tasks (e.g., raw to ready-to-eat, sandwich to salad station), (2) touches a contaminated surface, (3) the gloves are torn or soiled, or (4) every four hours of continuous same-task use at minimum. Critically, the handwash between glove changes is mandatory — the hand inside the glove sweats and becomes a culture environment, and removing the glove can transfer pathogens to the bare hand. Option A ignores the task change. Option B is wrong because food-contact gloves are not sanitized for reuse and most sanitizers are not food-safe at use concentration on skin. Option D is wrong because washing gloves is not an approved procedure and the prep sink is not for handwashing. The handwash + new glove sequence is the only compliant answer.