Law Puts Squeeze on Bar Fruit

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There may soon be a new twist on drinks at your favorite happy hour hot spot: no twist at all.

While public health officials say bare-handed placement of drink garnishes poses a possible infection risk, bartenders balk at snapping on latex gloves.

(Photodisc)

Imagine your martini came with no olives, and your Corona with no lime. Imagine a pint of Blue Moon without an orange slice.

A New York City bar was reportedly cited recently for a health code violation for failing to use either tongs or latex gloves to add a garnish to a cocktail. It has prompted at least one other Manhattan watering hole, which asked to remain anonymous, to sour on garnishing cocktails with fruit.

The previously obscure regulation, first reported in The New York Times, prohibits bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, such as olives and bar citrus, by bartenders and other food workers.

According to the New York City Health Department, bare-hand contact by infected food handlers has been the third most commonly reported cause of food-borne illness in New York state since 1985. In the early 1990s, changes made to the State Sanitary Code required that bartenders and food workers refrain from bare-hand contact with any ready-to-eat food.

It's nothing new, but you would be hard pressed to find a Big Apple bartender wearing latex gloves.

Some restaurant managers fear the regulation could negatively impact business.

"From a business standpoint, tongs would slow us down way too much," said the manager of a popular Upper West Side bar who declined to be identified. He also implied that latex gloves on bartenders are simply not cool.

Cool matters.

Drink to Your Health?

So how vital is this regulation? Jeffrey Hammond, spokesman for the health department's public affairs group, said that handling garnishes or ice with bare hands has been shown to introduce potential pathogens to a consumer's beverage.

"We have had a number of Hepatitis A and Shigella outbreaks over the years, involving bartenders and food workers who applied garnishes with bare hands," said Hammond. The infective dose, or the number of organisms necessary to cause illness, is very low and easily transmitted, explained Hammond. The experience is similar across the country.