Wearing nail polish without gloves could contaminate food with which type of contaminant?

• A. Biological
• B. Chemical
• C. Physical
• D. Allergen

Answer: (C)

The main idea is recognizing how contaminants enter food. When someone wears nail polish and handles food without gloves, flakes or chips of the polish can become a foreign object in the food. That kind of intrusion is classified as a physical contaminant—something tangible that doesn’t belong in the food and could cause harm if ingested or simply be unappealing.

It isn’t about living organisms or their growth, which would be biological contamination. It isn’t primarily about chemical residues from cleaners or pesticides, which would be chemical contamination, because the immediate hazard here is the actual piece of nail polish in the food rather than a chemical residue. And it isn’t about triggering an allergic reaction to a food ingredient, which would be an allergen concern; the issue described focuses on the presence of a nonfood object rather than a specific food allergen.

So, the best-fit idea is physical contamination because it involves a tangible foreign material from the presence of nail polish on hands entering the food. Wearing gloves serves as a barrier to prevent this type of contamination in the first place.