SACRAMENTO, CA – The new California law that requires food workers to wear gloves, stirring controversy among outraged chefs (including food truck owners) and bartenders, is another step closer to being repealed.

The state Assembly’s Health Committee, which proposed the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law, voted unanimously to repeal that section of the Health and Safety Code.

“A vast number of our local restaurants and bars raised serious concerns with this prohibition after the passage of this new law,” Assemblyman Richard Pan (D., Sacramento) at the committee hearing in Sacramento on Tuesday.

According to the law that went into effect Jan. 1, cooks and bartenders must wear disposable gloves or use scoops, tongs or other utensils when handling “ready-to-eat” food such as fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, deli meats — anything that won’t be cooked or reheated before it goes out to customers

The bill to repeal the glove provision would return previous language to the food safety code that says employees should “minimize” bare-handed contact with food. The bill will next go to a floor vote.

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