Illinois Food Safety Manager Certification Practice Exam

The correct course of action in this scenario involves the need to maintain proper food safety practices, specifically regarding contamination risk. When an employee uses their cell phone while handling food, there is a significant risk of the phone transferring contaminants to the food, thus jeopardizing food safety.

By asking the employee to discard any contaminated fruit and wash his hands, the manager is ensuring that any potential pathogens or contaminants from the phone or the environment do not compromise food safety. This action helps to prevent foodborne illness that could result from cross-contamination. Washing hands properly after a potential contamination event is a critical hygiene protocol in food handling.

Other options such as allowing the employee to continue working as usual would ignore the contamination risk, while asking to sanitize the phone may not effectively address any contamination that has already occurred to the food. Similarly, asking the employee to take a break does not rectify the potential for food contamination and does not uphold the necessary safety standards required in food handling. Thus, the best choice is to discard the potentially contaminated fruit and ensure that proper handwashing procedures are followed.