July 22, 2002

Dear Mr. Korksy:

The Arizona Department of Health Services is in receipt of the letters you sent to the Utah Department of Health requesting information on any laws or regulations that require the general public to wear shoes in public places.

To give you an example on different states' laws and regulations, Arizona's new food code does not say anything about what customers must wear in a restaurant. Likewise, there are no specific requirements for attire in public places. The code does say that food service workers must "wear clean outer clothing to prevent contamination of food, equipment, utensils, etc." There is no specific requirement for shoes, but if an inspector believes that shoes may be required in order to prevent the contamination of food, then the inspector may require shoes in that particular situation.

Please remember the above information is only for Arizona. For your convenience, I have enclosed copies of the State of Utah's Web page, which has an address and telephone number listed, if you would like to contact them again. I hope you find this information useful.

Sincerely,

(signed)

Danny Valenzuela
Deputy Director

DV/ldj

Enc.

Leadership for a Healthy Arizona