Infographic Kitchen Manager Certification

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Kitchen Manager Certification

An Important Way To Improve Restaurant Food Safety

Restaurants with managers certified in food safety:

are less likely to have foodborne illness outbreaks
have better food safety practices
have better ratings and fewer critical violations on their inspections

Each year, 800 outbreaks of foodborne illness occur in the United States and most of these are linked with restaurants. Government agencies and the restaurant industry can use kitchen manager certification to improve food safety in restaurants.

What is kitchen manager certification?

Certified kitchen managers are restaurant employees with management responsibility who have passed a test to show knowledge of food safety.

Typically, they do this by:

Taking a food safety course
Passing a test given by one of the four accredited certification programs:
- - Always Food Safe Company
  - National Registry of Food Safety Professionals
  - National Restaurant Association (ServSafe)
  - Prometric
  - StateFoodSafety.com
  - 360training.com (Learn2Serve)

How much does certification cost?

Online certification costs approximately $257 per person.

An outbreak costs a restaurant $4,000–$2.2 million.

Outbreaks can lead to:

loss of customers, sales, and reputation
lawsuits and legal fees
negative media coverage
higher insurance premiums

What is the Food Code and how can it help?

The Food Code is put out by the Food and Drug Administration. It contains science-based guidance to improve food safety in restaurants. States, tribes, localities, and territories can use it as a model for their own restaurant food safety rules.

States that have adopted the Food Code provision on certified kitchen managers have fewer norovirus outbreaks.

The Food Code provision on certified kitchen managers requires restaurants to have a manager certified in food safety.

What can you do if your state does not require kitchen manager certification?

States can adopt the provision on kitchen manager certification from the 2017 FDA Food Code.
Restaurants can require their kitchen managers to be certified in food safety.
Kitchen managers can get certified through an accredited certification program.
Customers can ask to see proof of kitchen manager certification (for example, a certificate) when going out to eat.

For more information: