Food handlers can contaminate ready to eat food and cause foodborne illness when they do which of the following?

Introduction / Context:
This food safety question tests your understanding of how food workers can unintentionally contaminate food and spread foodborne illnesses. Knowing risky behaviours in food handling is vital for restaurants, catering services, and even home kitchens, because many outbreaks start with simple hygiene mistakes.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The question focuses on ready to eat food, which will not be cooked again before being served.
• Behaviours listed include poor hand hygiene, working while ill, and cross contamination between raw and ready foods.
• The goal is to determine whether one or all of these actions can contaminate food.

Concept / Approach:
Food contamination can occur through three main routes: biological (microorganisms), chemical (cleaners, toxins), and physical (foreign objects). In this context, the main concern is biological contamination by harmful bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Ready to eat foods are particularly vulnerable because they are not heated again before serving, so any contamination that occurs just before service can reach the consumer directly. Poor hand washing after using the toilet can transfer pathogens such as norovirus or certain bacteria. Working while actively ill increases the chance that pathogens from vomit or diarrhoea will spread to foods or surfaces. Using the same cutting board for raw meat and ready foods without proper cleaning allows bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter to move from raw products to foods that will be eaten as they are.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Guidelines from food safety authorities consistently list proper hand washing, exclusion of ill workers, and prevention of cross contamination as key control measures. Training materials for food handlers provide examples very similar to those in the options. These materials explain that ready to eat foods such as salads, sandwiches, and bakery items require special care because they bypass further cooking. If you compare the options with such guidelines, you will see that each specific behaviour is highlighted as risky, confirming that all of them can cause contamination.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

Touching ready to eat food with unwashed hands after toilet use is indeed dangerous, but choosing only this option ignores other serious risks such as working while sick and cross contamination.

Working while sick alone is insufficient as an answer, because the other listed behaviours also clearly contribute to contamination risks.

Using the same cutting board for raw meat and salad without cleaning is dangerous, but again it is only one of several unsafe actions listed in the question.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes focus only on the most obvious behaviour, such as not washing hands, and overlook other equally important risks. Another mistake is to assume that contamination happens only when food looks dirty, but micro organisms are invisible. It is also easy to underestimate the danger of working while mildly ill, even though pathogens can still spread. Remember that safe food handling requires a combination of good personal hygiene, proper cleaning and sanitising, and careful separation of raw and ready to eat foods.

Final Answer:
Food handlers can contaminate ready to eat food through all of the listed unsafe behaviours, so the correct choice is All of the above.