Impact Study: Essential Skills and Food Sanitation and Hygiene Training

Certification Process

As of April 1, 2005, in premises where there are six or more staff, a minimum of one person on shift must hold Provincial Food Safe qualifications. When there are five or fewer employees, at least one member of either the management or supervisory staff must be Food Safe certified.

Certification to meet this regulation can be achieved through the following routes:

The Regional Health Authorities approved course	The Regional Health Authorities (RHA) offer an approved course (minimum of ten hours) to food service workers. Workers write a certification exam supplied by Alberta Health and Wellness at the conclusion of the course. Educational institutions are often used as training venues for the approved course.
Technical Schools	Technical schools such as NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) and SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) include safe food handling in their regular chef and culinary courses. The schools administer the provincial exam and Alberta Health and Wellness issues the certificate.
Accredited Programs	A small number of accredited programs have been granted an equivalency status to teach food safety courses and to administer their own exam. They are: Foodsafe ServSafe and Advanced.fst (Traincan, Inc.) Foodwise (Canada Council of Grocery Distributors). Where there are two levels to a course as in the case of Foodsafe, certification can only be obtained through the highest level.
Independent trainers	Independent trainers can receive training status from Alberta Health and Wellness by meeting the criteria specified in their expected learning outcomes. They require that the participants take the Alberta Health and Wellness certification exam.
Individuals: Challenging the Exam	Individual food service workers are able to challenge the certification exam without a formal training course. Alberta Health and Wellness stipulates the criteria for an individual who applies to write the exam. The Regional Health Authorities pre-screen the applicants who must validate their work and training experience. Then applicants arrange with a public health inspector to complete the exam.
Online Training	Future plans At this time, some online food safety training courses are available but are not endorsed by Alberta Health and Wellness for certification. Alberta Health and Wellness are working on approving online food safety delivery and certification as another option for the future.