Food Safety Training

The U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from food borne illnesses each year. Many of these illnesses can be prevented through food safety training and education. The food industry, federal, state, and local food safety agencies, academia, and consumers all share the responsibility for a safe food supply.

Food safety training benefits your business in several ways, including:

• Helping to prevent your customers from becoming ill from consuming food sold by your business.
• Helping to protect your business from the negative impacts associated with a link to a food borne illness outbreak or insanitary conditions. Negative impacts may include legal actions, news reports, and loss of customers.
• Providing you and your workers with up-to-date information on food laws and regulations that will assist you in passing regulatory inspections.
• Helping you maintain a clean food establishment, which is an essential part of maintaining high customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Article 20-C of the New York State Agriculture and Markets Law was recently amended to establish a food safety education certification requirement for certain retail food stores which prepare food on the premises.

The amendments require, with certain exceptions for small establishments, that every retail food store that applies for a food processing establishment license furnish evidence that an individual from within the store has been recognized as having completed an approved food safety education program. The license application is required to be accompanied by documentation which demonstrates that this food safety education requirement has been met. In most cases this documentation will be a certificate indicating an individual in a position of management or control has attended an approved course. A failure to comply with the education requirements will result in the denial of the food processing license.

This requirement does not apply to a food store that has as its only full time employees the owner or the parent, spouse, or child of the owner, or in addition not more than two full time employees. It would also not apply to a food store that has annual gross sales in the previous calendar year of less than $3,000,000, unless the food store is part of a network of subsidiaries, affiliates, or other member stores, under direct or indirect control, which, as a group, had annual gross sales of the previous calendar year of $3,000,000 or more.

Download the document below to view the list of approved food safety education program providers who can help you to meet this requirement.