Lawmakers are actually listening to constituents. The new food law is now under revision, proving how easy it is to get a law changed in the food industry.

Word of mouth through social media and news allowed disgruntled bartenders to voice their frustrations on the new law.

The law enacted Jan. 1, required food servers to wear disposable gloves or use tongs when handling ready-to-eat food items, but there was no transition time for bartenders to get used to the new regulations.

Benefits of the law reversal include suspension of tong, glove, and paper use. There is still some limitation with the law reversal, but not to the extent of no hand contact.

Assemblyman Richard Pan, will repeal the section of the Retail Food Code that prohibits bare hand contact with food and replaces it with the law as it existed in 2013.

The old law restricted bare hand contact with ready to eat food. Food that was already cooked was required to be picked up with tongs, gloves or contact paper. This greatly limited the movability, creativity and efficiency of people in the foodservice industry.  

This stands to show that lawmakers are not being as diligent as they should. Shooting from the hip on food handling policies affects not only food industry workers, but the restaurant industry as a whole.

New food handling laws come into effect for, in some cases, foodborne illness prevention. Conceptualization of the new section 113961 was to help prevent the spread of disease, but the specifications of the new law were unrealistic.