Three Employees, One Short-Staffed Manager
On a Wednesday, a line cook at a 120-seat restaurant tells the manager she has had diarrhea for two days and took two anti-diarrheal pills that morning. Another employee has a cut on his index finger covered with a finger cot and a single-use glove; he is prepping salad. A third employee, a server, was diagnosed with hepatitis A three weeks ago and has returned with a note. The manager says all three can work because the restaurant is short-staffed. An inspector arrives and finds raw chicken stored above ready-to-eat lettuce in the walk-in. The restaurant has no written employee health policy. The inspector says she will return in 48 hours and may close the facility.
1. Determine the work status for each of the three employees and justify it.
Read the worked answer
Line cook with diarrhea: exclude from food handling. Diarrhea is a symptom of a foodborne illness, and anti-diarrheal medication does not shorten the exclusion - it masks the symptom while the person may still shed pathogens. Return to food duties only after the required symptom-free period in your jurisdiction (commonly 24 hours after resolution) or per the local health authority. Reassignment to non-food duties is acceptable if she is willing and the tasks do not involve food or food-contact surfaces.
Employee with the cut finger: he can work with restrictions, not exclusion. A cut on a hand is a potential Staphylococcus source. The finger cot plus a single-use glove over it is the right control, provided the wound is covered, the glove is intact and changed, and he does not handle ready-to-eat food with bare hands. Verify the wound is not infected and that he is not touching the wound and then the food. The judgment point: this is a restriction, not an exclusion, and the salad prep is acceptable only with intact coverage.
Server with hepatitis A: do not clear her on a note alone. Hepatitis A is a reportable, highly communicable illness; the Food Code excludes food workers with hepatitis A for a defined period after onset of jaundice and symptoms (commonly 7 days after onset), and clearance must come from the health authority. Three weeks may or may not meet the standard depending on her onset date. Call the health department before scheduling her. The note is not a substitute for the regulatory determination.
2. The inspector found raw chicken above ready-to-eat lettuce. What corrections do you make on the spot, and what do you say to the inspector?
Read the worked answer
On the spot:
- Move the raw chicken to a lower shelf, below and away from ready-to-eat food, in a drip-proof container.
- Treat the lettuce as potentially contaminated if there was any visible drip or condensation transfer - discard if contaminated, do not simply rinse it. If there is no evidence of contact, clean and sanitize the shelf and the exterior of the lettuce container, and document the decision.
- Clean and sanitize the shelf and the surrounding surfaces.
- Check the rest of the cooler for the same pattern.
To the inspector: be direct, factual, and do not argue or minimize. State what you corrected immediately, what you discarded, and what you will change (storage chart, training, daily cooler check). Provide a written corrective action with a completion date. The judgment tested is that the inspector is evaluating management response as much as the violation - defensiveness and excuses predict recurrence.
3. The facility has no written employee health policy and a re-inspection in 48 hours. Build the response.
Read the worked answer
48-hour plan:
- Today: draft an employee health policy based on the local Food Code: reportable symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, infected wound), reportable diagnoses (hepatitis A, Salmonella Typhi, Shigella, E. coli O157:H7, norovirus), exclusion and restriction rules, and the manager's duty to exclude. Name the person with authority to send someone home.
- Today: train all staff on the policy and on reporting symptoms; document attendance and signatures. Post a symptom-reporting notice.
- Today: correct and document the storage violation and the three employee health decisions. Keep the health department's contact and any clearance documents.
- Before re-inspection: assemble records - temperature logs, cleaning logs, training records, and corrective actions - in one folder.
On re-inspection: walk the inspector through the corrections, show the policy and training records, and ask for clarification on any point where your interpretation differs. Do not promise changes you cannot sustain; a written policy that is not enforced is worse than none because it documents that management knew the rule.
Root cause: short-staffing drove the manager to keep a symptomatic cook on the line. The policy must give the manager and the person in charge the authority - and the staffing plan - to exclude without the operation collapsing.