How to Get Food Safety Certified
Food safety certification is a vital safety measure that anyone in your commercial kitchen can receive. Whether you have all your food handlers take a certification course or you have a designated food manager, having a certified member of staff is an excellent way to help ensure all your food is prepared and stored properly. But getting food safety certified can seem like a daunting task to some that they may not know where to even begin the process. Luckily, the overall process is actually rather simple. Learn more about how to get your food safety certification below.
What is a Food Safety Certification?
A food safety certification is an accreditation earned after taking a training course in how to properly handle, prepare, cook and store food products in a commercial kitchen. A trainee will take a certification test when the course is completed and earn the title after achieving a high score. They will then be certified for a certain amount of time and can continue to be certified with subsequent recertification training and tests.
What Do You Need to Learn to be Food Safety Certified?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are five crucial areas of food handling that trainees will need to learn and master to be food safety certified. These areas include:
- How to clean food prep area to prevent cross contamination
- How to separate raw and cooked food products
- Cooking food products thoroughly
- Storage of food products at proper temperature
- Use of safe water and raw materials
While these concepts and practices are the most common areas of any food safety certification course, different states, counties, provinces and regions can require additional information on their certifications.
ServSafe, which is one of the most widespread and well-known food safety certification accreditors, includes areas of study like basic hygiene, cleaning and sanitization in their courses to be fully certified as a food handler. ServSafe also hosts a Food Manager certification that covers additional safety practices like:
- Foodborne microorganisms and allergens
- Personal hygiene
- Purchasing, receiving, storing food
- Preparing, cooking, serving
- Facilities, cleaning/sanitization, pest management
Where Do I Go to be Food Safety Certified?
Food safety certification requirements vary by state, county, province and regional guidelines, so the first place to look is to your local health department. Not all states in the US will require a food safety certification, but it is a certification that is strongly recommended by many commercial foodservice professionals.
From there, you can check for any local in-person certification classes to take, or take the course online through a local or national program. Common certification courses in the US, Canada and Mexico include:
- United States
- Canada
- Mexico