Food Handler Program Enhancements

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

The County of San Diego worked with stakeholders to upgrade the local Food Handler Program, adding an online testing option, simplifying the program and cutting certificate costs in half beginning August 28, 2013. The Food Handler Program has been successfully operating since the 1980s, protecting the health of residents and visitors to the county. The program requires food safety education for food service employees, ensuring that anyone who prepares food or who may come in contact with food products, food utensils or equipment obtains a standardized level of food safety knowledge. The program provided several training options: obtain a food handler certificate by training and taking a proctored exam or renew a food handler certificate by taking a proctored exam at the local Department of Environmental Health (DEH). The program did not incorporate online testing and was in need of modernization. Upgrades identified in collaboration with stakeholders increased food handler training options by making testing available online as well as discontinuing food handler certificate renewals in favor of requiring food handler training every three years. The simplified program also had the added benefit of reducing the cost of the food handler certificate from $6 to $3.