§ 81.13 Food Workers: Health; Hygienic Practices.
RCNY § 81.13
All food workers shall use hygienic practices and maintain personal cleanliness.
(a)Work restriction. No person shall work or shall be knowingly or negligently permitted to work in a food service establishment while afflicted with a boil or infected wound and unless he or she is free from acute, infectious diarrhea, amebiasis, cholera, cryptosporidiosis, diphtheria, E. coli 0157:H7, giardiasis, hepatitis A, poliomyelitis, salmonellosis, shigellosis, streptococcal sore throat (including scarlet fever), superficial staphylococcal infection, tuberculosis, typhoid, or yersiniosis and is not a carrier of organisms causing the above conditions or other disease listed in 24 RCNY Health Code § 11.03 in a communicable form and unless the period of isolation or exclusion prescribed by 24 RCNY Health Code Article 11 has ended.
(b)Hair restraints. Food workers shall wear caps, hats, hair nets or other hair coverings to effectively keep hair from contaminating food or food contact surfaces. This requirement shall not apply to counter staff, bartenders, baristas, hosts or wait staff when they are preparing or serving beverages or serving food.
(c)Clothing. All food workers shall wear clean, washable outer garments when starting work and shall replace such garments with clean clothing as often as necessary thereafter to prevent contamination of food or food contact surfaces from soiled or contaminated clothing.
(d)Hand washing. Food workers and other employees shall wash hands and exposed areas of arms thoroughly with soap and water before starting work and as often as necessary to remove soil and any substance that might lead to contamination. Thereafter, hands shall be washed thoroughly after using the toilet, smoking or using electronic cigarettes, sneezing, coughing, eating, drinking or when otherwise soiling hands before returning to work. When gloves are used as a barrier to protect ready-to-eat food from bare hand contact, hands shall be washed before gloves are put on.
(e)Fingernails. Food workers shall keep their fingernails trimmed, filed, and maintained so the edges and surfaces are cleanable and not rough, and unless wearing intact gloves in good repair, shall not wear fingernail polish or artificial fingernails when working with exposed food.
(f)Jewelry. Except for medical alert bracelets or a ring that is smooth and without crevices, such as a wedding band, food workers may not wear jewelry on their arms or hands.
(g)Smoking. Food workers shall not smoke any substance, use tobacco in any form or use electronic cigarettes in any indoor or outdoor area of the premises used by a food service establishment.
(h)Eating and drinking. Food workers shall not eat or drink in food preparation or other areas where food, equipment, and utensils may be exposed to contamination, except that a food worker may drink from beverages in closed containers.
(i)No spitting allowed. Spitting anywhere in the establishment is prohibited. (Amended City Record 7/9/2015, eff. 8/8/2015)
