A new law which required chefs and bartenders to wear gloves while preparing food stuffs has brought a lot of protest from the food service community. The law has mandated that food service personnel handling "ready-to-eat" foods, which entails anything that won't be reheated or cooked before consumption, would need to wear gloves, or handle the food with tongs.
The law, which went into effect January 1st, was immediately panned by chefs as being costly, inefficient, bad for the environment, and dangerous. Many chefs believed that the law would cause a false sense of security for people preparing these meals, and could possibly be more dangerous and unhealthy than the risks the law was attempting to prevent.
The chefs gathered over 18,000 signatures in a petition against the glove law. According to the LA Times, their voices have been heard. Less than 2 months later, the chair of California's Assembly Health Committee, Dr. Richard Pan, has proposed legislation to repeal the law. "It's not about whether there are gloves or not, it should be about whether the local business and the health inspector have worked together to create a safe environment for the customer."
According to Pan, health departments across California had been handling the law differently, and had difficulties in determining what would qualify for exemption. They were not going to begin enforcing the law until 2015 in an attempt to give restaurants and bars a chance to acclimate and prepare for the new regulations.
The bill is co-authored by Sen. Leland Yee , Assemblyman Richard Bloom , Assemblyman Brian Maeinschein, and Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski. The bill will require a two-thirds majority to pass, and the date for the vote has not yet been released. If passed, it will go into effect this year.
