California needs an effective law governing the way handlers prepare ready-to-eat food. Its first try last year was clumsy, but food-borne illnesses are serious business, so lawmakers have to try again.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year food-borne germs sicken 1 in 6 Americans -- 48 million people. An estimated 128,000 of them are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.

The CDC says workers touching food is a big part of the problem -- the No. 1 cause of food-originated norovirus outbreaks throughout the nation, for example.

Gov. Jerry Brown last year signed a bill authored by Assemblyman Richard Pan, a pediatrician, that banned bare-hand contact with food. It was scheduled to go into effect in July until bartenders and sushi chefs up and down the state woke up and basically threw a fit.

Luis Escamilla puts on gloves before cutting prosciutto at the Hock Farm Restaurant  in Sacramento, Calif.
Luis Escamilla puts on gloves before cutting prosciutto at the Hock Farm Restaurant in Sacramento, Calif. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

They pressured the Assembly Health Committee last week to repeal the law. Pan, who chairs the committee, is now working on a new bill, AB2130, that tries to protect consumers without ridiculously overburdening restaurants and bars. (Picture bartenders donning gloves every time they have to squeeze a lime.) It can be done.

California is one of only nine states without some kind of law requiring restaurant workers to wear latex gloves or use forks when handling food. It's late to respond to a recommendation to that effect by the Food and Drug Administration more than 20 years ago.


Some states including Oregon, Louisiana and Minnesota drafted laws encouraging minimal hand contact but exempting food handlers from wearing gloves in certain cases. Pan should follow their lead. The extreme ban he first authored was unenforceable. In many states where it exists, it's widely ignored.

Bartenders say putting on gloves to garnish a margarita doubles their preparation time without making consumers substantially safer. Chefs say they have to touch sushi with their bare hands to ensure its quality. And let's face it, dirty gloves can be just as bad as dirty hands.

The issue should be cleanliness. That's where Pan's new law should focus, requiring or encouraging gloves in some circumstances and setting stricter hygiene standards for those who need to use bare hands.

California can't hire enough inspectors to make chefs and bartenders fully comply with an excessively restrictive law. Regulation will be most effective if it increases awareness by consumers and encourages restaurants and their workers to step up their hygiene practices, whether by properly using gloves or turning more often to plain old soap and water.