Food workers should use clean utensils —specifically serving tongs, spatulas, or deli/deli-tissue sheets—to touch food from display cases, not their bare hands.

Quick Scoop: The Core Rule

  • The standard safe answer to “what should food workers use to touch food from display cases” is serving tongs or similar utensils that act as a barrier between hands and ready‑to‑eat food.
  • Many food safety guides also accept clean spatulas or deli tissue/sheets as proper barriers for items like pastries, deli meats, cheeses, and salads.
  • The goal is to avoid bare-hand contact with ready‑to‑eat foods to reduce the risk of spreading bacteria and causing foodborne illness.

What Can Be Used?

  • Serving tongs (the most common correct “test” answer).
  • Spatulas or spoons for lifting or serving softer foods.
  • Deli sheets/tissue or similar food-safe paper as a hand barrier.
  • In some operations, single‑use gloves may also be used, but they must be clean and changed frequently to actually be sanitary.

What Should NOT Be Used?

  • Bare hands directly on ready‑to‑eat foods from the case. Even “clean hands” are not considered a proper barrier in typical food-safety test questions.
  • Cloth linens or cloth towels, which can hold and transfer bacteria if reused.
  • Decorative or non‑food‑grade utensils (like pewter items in quiz options), which are not designed as sanitary serving tools.

In exam-style questions, if you must choose one option, “serving tongs” is the correct and safest pick for touching food from display cases.

TL;DR: For food from display cases, use serving tongs (or other clean utensils/deli tissue) as a barrier—never bare hands.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.