Section 410IAC7-21-35. Personnel health

   (a) The plant management shall take all reasonable measures and precautions to ensure compliance with the following:

(1) Any person who, by medical examination or supervisory observation, is shown to have, or appears to have:

(A) an illness;

(B) an open lesion, including:

(i) boils;

(ii) sores; or

(iii) infected wounds; or

(C) any other abnormal source of microbial contamination;

by which there is a reasonable possibility of food, food-contact surfaces, or food-packaging materials becoming contaminated shall be excluded or restricted from any operations, which may result in contamination until the condition is corrected. Personnel shall be instructed to report such health conditions to supervisory personnel.

(2) An exclusion shall be applied if a food employee is diagnosed with an illness due to Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Escherichia coli 0157:H7, or Hepatitis A virus. A food employee shall be restricted from working with exposed food, food-contact surfaces, clean equipment, and utensils or food-packaging materials if the food employee:

(A) has a symptom caused by illness, infection, or other source that is associated with an acute gastrointestinal illness, such as diarrhea, fever, vomiting, jaundice, or sore throat with fever;

(B) has a lesion containing pus, such as a boil or infected wound that is open or draining and is:

(i) on the hands or wrists unless an impermeable cover, such as a finger cot or stall protects the lesion and a single-use glove is worn over the impermeable cover;

(ii) on exposed portions of the arms unless the lesion is protected by an impermeable cover; or

(iii) on the other parts of the body unless the lesion is covered by a dry, durable, tight-fitting bandage; or

(C) is not experiencing a symptom of acute gastroenteritis as specified in this subdivision, but has a stool that yields a specimen culture that is positive for Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., or Escherichia coli 0157:H7.

(3) An exclusion may be removed when supervisory personnel obtains from the excluded person written medical documentation from a physician, a nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant that the excluded person may work in an unrestricted capacity.

(4) A restriction may be removed by supervisory personnel when the restricted person:

(A) is free of the symptoms of illness specified in subdivision (2) and no foodborne illness occurs that may have been caused by the restricted person;

(B) is suspected of causing foodborne illness but:

(i) is free of the symptoms specified under subdivision (2)(A); and

(ii) provides written medical documentation from a physician, a nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant stating that the restricted person is free of the infectious agent that is suspected of causing the person's symptoms or causing foodborne illness; or

(C) provides written medical documentation from a physician, a nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant stating that the symptoms experienced result from a chronic noninfectious condition, such as Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or ulcerative colitis.

  (b) The department may issue an order of restriction or exclusion to a wholesale food establishment without prior warning, notice of a hearing, or a hearing if the order states the following:

(1) The reasons for the restriction or exclusion that is ordered.

(2) The evidence that the wholesale food establishment shall provide in order to demonstrate that the reasons for the restriction or exclusion has been eliminated.

(3) That a suspected food employee or the wholesale food establishment may request an appeal hearing by submitting a timely request as provided in law.

(4) The name and address of the department's representative to whom a request for an appeal hearing may be made.

(Indiana State Department of Health; 410 IAC 7-21-35; filed Jan 7, 2002, 10:16 a.m.: 25 IR 1619, eff one hundred twenty (120) days after filing with secretary of state; readopted filed Jul 14, 2008, 2:14 p.m.: 20080806-IR-410080322RFA; readopted filed Sep 10, 2014, 2:08 p.m.: 20141008-IR-410140299RFA)