Ontario Food Handler Certification Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

When a food handler suspects that food has been contaminated, the appropriate action is to discard the food immediately. This is crucial because consuming contaminated food can lead to foodborne illnesses, which pose serious health risks to consumers.

Discarding the food eliminates the risk of serving it to customers and prevents any potential outbreaks of illness, safeguarding public health. This action is in line with food safety protocols that emphasize the importance of removing any potentially hazardous items from the food supply immediately upon suspicion of contamination.

Keeping the food for further inspection or refrigerating it are not safe options, as they do not address the immediate risk that the food presents. Cooking the food thoroughly may not guarantee that all pathogens or toxins are destroyed, especially if the food is spoiled or contaminated in a way that cooking cannot resolve. Thus, the safest and most responsible action is to discard the food right away.