Food Safety Personal Hygiene & Employee Health Practice Questions
Personal Hygiene & Employee Health makes up 8 of every 50 questions on a Tigertest Food Safety practice test. Here are 10 of the 32 questions on it, each with the answer and the reason.
Updated by the Tigertest team. Built on the FDA Food Code (2017 and 2022). Your local code may differ; check with your health department.
1. According to the Food Code, how long should the entire hand-washing process take?
- A.At least 5 seconds
- B.At least 20 seconds
- C.At least 2 full minutes
- D.At least 10 seconds
Answer: B. Hand washing should take at least 20 seconds, including 10 to 15 seconds of vigorous scrubbing with soap. Ten seconds is only the low end of the scrubbing step, not the whole process.
2. Which sequence correctly lists the hand-washing steps a food handler must follow?
- A.Wet, scrub, soap, dry, rinse
- B.Wet, soap, rinse, scrub, dry
- C.Soap, wet, rinse, scrub, dry
- D.Wet, soap, scrub, rinse, dry
Answer: D. Wet hands and arms with water at least 100 F (38 C), apply soap, scrub 10 to 15 seconds, rinse thoroughly, then dry with a single-use towel or hand dryer. Rinsing before scrubbing washes the soap away before it can lift soil and pathogens.
3. A cook finishes rinsing hands at the hand sink during a busy rush. Which drying method is acceptable?
- A.A single-use paper towel
- B.A shared cloth towel
- C.A wiping cloth from the sanitizer bucket
- D.His apron
Answer: A. Hands must be dried with single-use paper towels or a hand dryer, never on aprons, shared cloth towels or wiping cloths. A wiping cloth holds soil and pathogens and would recontaminate clean hands.
4. A line cook trims raw chicken and then needs to plate a salad. What must happen before touching the salad?
- A.Rinse gloves under running water
- B.Use hand antiseptic over the old gloves
- C.Wash hands and put on new gloves
- D.Wipe hands on the apron
Answer: C. Hands must be washed and gloves changed after handling raw meat, seafood or poultry and before working with ready-to-eat food. Gloves cannot be rinsed or sanitized and reused.
5. An employee carries trash to the dumpster and comes back to the prep line. What should the employee do next?
- A.Use hand antiseptic only
- B.Rinse hands at the prep sink
- C.Wash hands at a hand sink
- D.Put on gloves without washing
Answer: C. Hands must be washed after taking out garbage and before returning to food prep, and only at a designated hand sink. Hand antiseptic is not a substitute for hand washing.
6. A server takes a personal phone call and then goes back to garnishing plates. When must the server wash hands?
- A.Before returning to food work
- B.Only if the phone looked dirty
- C.Only after touching raw food
- D.Only at the end of the shift
Answer: A. Hands must be washed after touching phones, money, the face, hair or body, after coughing or sneezing, and after eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum. Waiting until the phone looks dirty ignores pathogens that cannot be seen.
7. A prep cook is about to put on single-use gloves to assemble sandwiches. What should the cook do first?
- A.Apply hand antiseptic only
- B.Blow into the gloves to open them
- C.Rinse hands in the prep sink
- D.Wash hands
Answer: D. Hands must be washed before putting on gloves, because dirty hands contaminate the outside of the gloves as they go on. Hand antiseptic may be used only after washing, never instead of it.
8. A dishwasher is seen rinsing a sauce pot in the hand sink. Why is this a violation?
- A.Hand sinks lack a sanitizer supply
- B.Hand sinks are only for washing hands
- C.The water at hand sinks is not hot enough
- D.Pots must only be rinsed in the dish machine
Answer: B. Hand sinks may be used only for hand washing so they stay clean and available, and they must be stocked with soap, single-use towels or a dryer, a waste container and a hand-washing sign. Hand sink water must be at least 100 F, but temperature is not the reason for this rule.
9. A manager checks the water at a hand sink with a thermometer. What is the minimum water temperature required by the Food Code?
- A.165 F
- B.100 F
- C.70 F
- D.120 F
Answer: B. Hand sinks must supply water of at least 100 F (38 C) so soap can remove soil effectively. 165 F would scald hands; it is a cooking temperature, not a hand-washing requirement.
10. A cook is about to place lettuce and tomato on a burger bun for a customer. Which practice is acceptable?
- A.Using bare hands after washing
- B.Using bare hands with hand antiseptic
- C.Using a damp wiping cloth
- D.Using tongs or single-use gloves
Answer: D. Bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food is prohibited, so use gloves, tongs, deli tissue or spatulas unless the regulatory authority has approved an alternative procedure. Washing hands or using antiseptic does not make bare-hand contact acceptable.
Practice all 32 personal hygiene & employee health questions, and the rest of the 200-question bank, in the free Food Safety training sets. Questions you miss come back until you have mastered them.
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