Online Food Worker Training and Testing

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

The Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all San Bernardino County residents and visitors by protecting public health, promoting safety and preventing environmental hazards. One of the primary ways this is achieved is through educational outreach on food safety and protection. Education of food industry workers is the most effective method to ensure proper food handling and prevention of foodborne illness. DEHS serves the largest county geographically in the contiguous U.S., but had a limited number of food worker testing sites. The lack of accessibility to testing sites resulted in a large number of untrained food industry workers countywide. DEHS recognized the need to offer a more convenient, cost-effective food worker training and testing, with more languages, to better serve food industry workers throughout the county. By using an online platform, food industry workers save on expenses for travel and transportation due to the accessibility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The online program is now more accessible and convenient, as evidenced by a greater number of food industry workers successfully completing the program (an increase of 8,300 more workers trained from 2010/2011 to 2011/2012).