Food Safety Atlas

Food handler skills and certificates

Technical reference

Skills are the real requirement, and are one way of proving them. A certificate can't show that someone knows this kitchen, so a sound system separates three things: are they qualified, have they been shown, and can they do it?

These rules are specific to a place. Chapter 3 of the Code, including both standards here, applies in Australia only. Businesses that only manufacture or wholesale are generally outside , according to . Other countries set their own licensing and course rules, and states can modify the detail.

Training works best when it changes what people do. asks for effectiveness to be assessed through supervision and . A useful test is to ask a new starter to take a reading and say what they'd do if it failed.

Parameters

EveryoneSkills and knowledge that fit the work (, clause 3)
Course content4 topics: safe handling, contamination, cleaning and , personal hygiene
Handler refresherNo period set in . Regular refreshers are best practice
Supervisor certificateIssued within the past 5 years
Category oneHandlers trained, supervisor, and records or demonstration
Category twoHandlers trained and supervisor

Records that prove it

  • Each person: role, start date, what they owe
  • Certificate copy or skills assessment, with who checked it and when
  • Supervisor: name, certificate date, expiry date, cover arrangements
  • Retraining: who, what, who trained them, date closed
  • Dated review of the file against the roster
  • Who confirmed each certificate against the image, and when
  • Reminders and lapse notices sent

CCP or prerequisite?

That depends on the for your process. The number, if it has one, belongs to your plan.