Health and safety guidelines for Food and Drink Experiences

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This content was created by Airbnb and is consistent with Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) technical standards for food safety.

Host and guest safety is our priority in these unprecedented times. We want to provide additional resources to help hosts of experiences that include any kind of food and drink preparation or consumption host guests safely. 

In addition to Airbnb’s Food safety guidelines for experiences, hosts of experiences that include any kind of preparation or consumption of food and/or drink are also required to follow specific protocols to help reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. These additional COVID-19 related guidelines are meant to supplement—not replace—any applicable state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, rules, and regulations.

For general guidelines for hosts who meet guests in public spaces, please refer here. For guidelines for hosts who bring guests into their homes or spaces you manage refer here. 

Hosting requirements for all Food and Drink Experiences 

• All hosts and guests of experiences must wear protective face coverings as recommended by relevant regulatory agencies or authorities.
• At all times during the experience, guests and hosts must maintain distance from one another as recommended by the relevant regulatory authorities (e.g., 6ft in the US). 
• Wash your hands before, during and after your experience and bring hand sanitizer. 
• Avoid direct contact with guests and encourage guests to avoid it as well. In lieu of handshakes or hugging, choose an alternative no-contact greeting. 
• Experiences are currently limited to a maximum of 10 guests. Experiences that include more than 10 people may be removed from Airbnb.
• You must follow local regulatory guidance as published for restaurants and bars. In the absence of relevant regulatory guidance for restaurants and bars, guests and hosts must maintain a distance of 6ft and abide by the guidance provided to restaurants by the US CDC.  
• You must clean and sanitize all areas or surfaces guests may access or come into contact with including frequent cleaning and disinfection of work, kitchen and dining surfaces, equipment, bathrooms, and all other touch points such as door handles. We have created cleaning guidelines to help you prepare your space.

Consumption of food and drink

• Whenever possible, guests should consume food/drinks outdoors or through take-home option to reduce risk. Consumption of food indoors is permitted only when local restaurant laws also allow and must be facilitated according to those requirements.
• Avoid using or sharing utensils (such as serving spoons, etc) with your guests or allowing guests to share among themselves. Opt for individual, plated services instead of family-style dining and buffets. Avoid offering any self-serve food or drink options.
• Use disposable food service items including utensils and dishes. If disposable items are not feasible, ensure that all non-disposable food service items are handled with gloves and washed with dish soap and hot water or in a dishwasher. 

Physical distancing and ventilation 

• Host should set up physically distant stations and seating for guests following local guidelines. This may require you reduce the number of guests during each instance of hosting the experience, or to change the layout of your space.  
• When hosting indoors, ensure that ventilation systems operate properly and increase circulation of outdoor air as much as possible by opening windows and doors.

Cleaning and disinfecting protocols

• Reinforce food hygiene principles (Food safety guidelines for experiences) to maintain a sanitary food preparation area and to eliminate or reduce the risk of food surfaces and food packaging materials becoming contaminated.  
• Ensure adequate supplies to support healthy hygiene practices for guests including soap, wipes/alcohol-based hand sanitizers (or other forms of sanitization), paper towels, and tissues.

Personal hygiene 

• Promote frequent and effective handwashing and sanitation at each stage of the experience and food handling. 
• Gloves can be effective in reducing the spread of viruses and diseases, but only if used properly. Handwashing is a greater protective barrier to infection than wearing disposable gloves. However, the following are activities during which gloves should be worn:  
  • • When handling trash bags.
    • When using cleaners or disinfectants as required by the product instructions.
    • When handling dirty linens. 
    • When handling items contaminated by body fluids. 
    • Where disposable glove use may be helpful to supplement frequent handwashing or use of hand sanitizer; for example when handling commonly touched items. 
• If gloves are used, gloves must be changed frequently and hands must be washed between glove changes and when gloves are removed. 

Street food tours and market tours 

• Adapt your experience to take place at less crowded areas. Consider your meeting locations, venues you visit, points of sale with high attendance, transit options, etc. in order to maintain physical distance per local regulations. 
• Visit food markets in small groups (2-3 people max.) and keep physical distance at all times as recommended by the relevant regulatory authorities. 
• Avoid contact with live animals at wet markets and avoid buying any type of live animals.  
• Avoid unnecessarily touching food with hands.
• Consider choosing locations that provide basic infrastructure to promote sanitation: e.g. toilets, hand washing facilities, safe water supplies and drainage. 
• Do not taste specialty raw dishes and in any case, ensure that food is cooked thoroughly, especially meat, poultry, eggs, and seafood. For all other food and drink consumption, please refer to the guidelines mentioned above.