ServSafe Manager: Hygiene and Health Concepts
Importance ★★★★★ · 15% (estimate)
Overview
This chapter covers how food handlers themselves can make food unsafe and how to stop it. Hands are the main way germs move to food, so correct handwashing is the most important habit. The whole process takes at least 20 seconds, with 10 to 15 seconds of scrubbing, and hand sanitizer never replaces it.
Ready-to-eat food must not be touched with bare hands unless the regulatory authority approves. Food handlers use utensils, deli tissue, or single-use gloves. Gloves are changed when they get dirty or torn, between tasks, after handling raw meat and before ready-to-eat food, and, in ServSafe guidance, after four hours of continuous use.
Food handlers wear clean clothes and hair restraints and only a plain band ring on the hands. A wound on the hand or wrist is covered with an impermeable cover, such as a bandage or finger cot, and then a single-use glove. They eat, drink, and smoke only in designated areas.
The manager must decide when a sick worker is restricted (kept away from food) or excluded (kept out of the operation). Vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice mean exclusion. Certain illnesses, such as Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Salmonella, must be reported to the regulatory authority.
Key concepts
Handwashing
Wet hands and arms with warm running water, apply soap, scrub for 10 to 15 seconds, rinse, and dry with a single-use paper towel or hand dryer. The whole process takes at least 20 seconds.
Memory tip20 seconds total.
Source: U.S. FDA Food Code 2022 · as of 2022
Single-use gloves
Used for handling ready-to-eat food. Change them when dirty or torn, before a new task, and after raw meat and before ready-to-eat food; ServSafe also teaches changing them after four hours of continuous use. Never wash and reuse them.
Memory tipDirty, torn, new task, 4 hours.
Restriction
Keeping a food handler from working with exposed food, utensils, and equipment, for example with a sore throat and fever in an operation that does not serve a high-risk population.
Memory tipRestrict = away from food.
Source: U.S. FDA Food Code 2022 · as of 2022
Exclusion
Keeping a food handler out of the operation, for example with vomiting or diarrhea, or with jaundice that started within the last seven days.
Memory tipExclude = not in the building.
Source: U.S. FDA Food Code 2022 · as of 2022
Reportable illnesses
Norovirus, Hepatitis A, Shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Salmonella Typhi, and nontyphoidal Salmonella. The person in charge notifies the regulatory authority and excludes or restricts the worker; Hepatitis A and Salmonella Typhi mean exclusion.
Memory tipThe Big 6.
Source: U.S. FDA Food Code 2022 · as of 2022
Often tested
- Hand sanitizer is used only after handwashing, never instead of it.
- Hand or wrist wound: impermeable cover (bandage or finger cot) plus a single-use glove over it.
- Jewelry: only a plain band ring on the hands and arms.
- Vomiting or diarrhea: return generally after 24 hours without symptoms.
Easy to confuse: Restrict or exclude
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| Sore throat with fever (general population) | Restrict |
| Sore throat with fever (high-risk population) | Exclude |
| Vomiting or diarrhea | Exclude |
| Jaundice within the last 7 days | Exclude and report |
3 sample questions
Verified practice questions from this unit.
Question 1. How long should the whole handwashing process take?
- ① At least 5 seconds
- ② At least 2 minutes
- ③ At least 20 seconds
- ④ At least 10 seconds
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Answer: ③ At least 20 seconds
Key point: Handwashing at least 20 seconds; scrub 10-15 seconds
The whole handwashing process should take at least 20 seconds. Scrubbing hands and arms with soap should last 10 to 15 seconds.
Wrong choices
- At least 5 seconds: 5 seconds is far too short to remove germs.
- At least 10 seconds: Scrubbing alone should last 10 to 15 seconds, but the whole process takes at least 20 seconds.
- At least 2 minutes: Two minutes is not required. At least 20 seconds is the standard.
Question 2. What is the correct first step in handwashing?
- ① Dry hands with a single-use paper towel
- ② Scrub hands with soap for 10 to 15 seconds
- ③ Rinse hands under running water
- ④ Wet hands and arms with running warm water
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Answer: ④ Wet hands and arms with running warm water
Key point: Wet → soap → scrub 10-15 s → rinse → dry
Handwashing steps:
- Wet hands and arms with running warm water.
- Apply soap.
- Scrub hands and arms for 10 to 15 seconds, including between fingers and under nails.
- Rinse under running water.
- Dry with a single-use paper towel or a hand dryer.
Wrong choices
- Scrub hands with soap for 10 to 15 seconds: You scrub after wetting your hands and applying soap.
- Dry hands with a single-use paper towel: Drying comes near the end.
- Rinse hands under running water: Rinsing comes after scrubbing.
Question 3. When must food handlers change single-use gloves?
- ① Never, if they are washed between tasks
- ② Only after taking out the garbage
- ③ As soon as they become dirty or torn
- ④ Only at the end of the shift
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Answer: ③ As soon as they become dirty or torn
Key point: Change gloves when dirty/torn, between tasks, after 4 hours
Change single-use gloves as soon as they become dirty or torn, before starting a different task, after an interruption (like answering the phone), after handling raw meat, seafood, or poultry and before handling ready-to-eat food, and, following ServSafe guidance, after four hours of continuous use on the same task.
Wrong choices
- Only at the end of the shift: Gloves must be changed much more often than once a shift.
- Only after taking out the garbage: That is one time, but not the only one.
- Never, if they are washed between tasks: Single-use gloves must not be washed and reused.
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