Food safety training

If you are responsible for developing and maintaining your business's food safety management procedures, you are legally required to have received adequate food hygiene training.

Food business operators are also required by law to ensure that food handlers receive appropriate supervision, training and instruction to handle food safely.

In the UK, food handlers don't have to hold a food hygiene training certificate to prepare or sell food, although many food businesses will prefer that they do.

The necessary skills may be obtained through:

• on-the-job training
• self-study
• relevant prior experience
• training courses

Training certificates

UK food hygiene certificates don't have an expiry date. It is left to the discretion of the food business operator or Environmental Health Officer to decide whether a refresher course is needed. We would recommend that food hygiene refresher training is undertaken every 3 years.

It is recommended that food handlers undertake Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety training. Managers of food businesses, or those involved with complex processes, may require greater knowledge and training to Level 3.

We do not provide food hygiene training, however there are many food hygiene training courses available.

Providers of training courses can be easily found using an online search engine.