When should I Renew my Food Hygiene Certificate?

It is essential that everyone who works around food should have a up to date food hygiene certificate. This blog will look at why it is important to have a up to date certificate and which food hygiene course would be best suited to your job.

Why should I renew my food hygiene certificate?

Renewing your food hygiene certificate helps to make sure that knowledge is fresh in your mind. It will help make sure that you keep good practices when working around food. Also policies and legislation can be updated or new ones introduced, which you need to know about. Over time people can forget things that they need to put into practice every day. So doing a food hygiene course will help keep these practices fresh in your mind.

What are food handlers responsible for?

All food handlers have a legal duty to ensure food safety. This includes making sure that they maintain good personal hygiene, as well as making sure the workplace stays clean at all times, so that bacteria is killed and the risk of cross contamination is reduced. They also need to make sure that all allergens are catered for in a safe manner, this is so that someone that has an allergy doesn’t end up eating something that they are allergic to, as this could do serious damage and the business could end up with a fine.

What could bad food handling result in?

If workers do not take regular refresher courses, or decide not to use the skills that they have learnt in the courses, then bad food hygiene can occur. This can result in bad reviews from customers about the quality of the food and the cleanliness of the place, or because they have ended up with food poisoning or having an allergic reaction. Bad reviews will stop others from going, which then could result in the business having to close.

These bad reviews and cases of food poisoning will prompt an Environmental Health Officer visit, depending on their findings, they will either immediately close the business, or give the business a poor hygiene rating that could put off customers coming back, again this can be bad for business. Environmental Health Officers can also take businesses to Court for breaking food safety laws, this could then end up meaning a business has to close.

How do I renew my food hygiene certificate?

Renewing your certificate is simple and easy to do, choosing to do a CPD course to renew your certificate means that you can learn at your own pace, with us there is no time scale on when you need to complete the course, so you could decide to get the course done within a few hours, or do a unit a day and complete the course in a few days. Also, you can retake the quiz as many times as you need to pass.

This means when you have inspections, you can show that you and other staff are up to date with your training and means that you won’t end up getting in trouble for not doing enough training.

What food hygiene certificate do I need?

We offer level 2 and 3 food hygiene certificates,

Our level 2 courses are in catering, retail and manufacturing and our level 3 course is for supervising caterers, perfect for supervisors and managers in the food industry.

We also offer an allergens awareness course that is perfect for anyone who handles food in their job, it is important to have fresh knowledge on the types of allergens out there and how serious they can be.

Who should take the catering course?

CPD catering courses are perfect for chefs, takeaway workers, hotel staff, café staff, fast-food establishments, school catering staff and pop up food stall owners.

If you are unsure on which course would be best for you, you can always email us or message us on our online chat and one of our course advisors will be able to help advise you on which course will be best for you.

Who should take the allergen course?

This course is perfect for anyone who works with food, the other hygiene courses cover the basics of allergens, however this course goes into greater detail, this would be perfect for supervisors, as they have more responsibilities.

Who should take the retail course?

People who work as a green grocer, butcher, bakery staff, supermarket staff and convenience store workers.

If you are unsure on which course would be best for you, you can always email us or message us on our online chat and one of our course advisors will be able to help advise you in which course will be best for you.

Who should take the manufacturing course?

This course is perfect for people who work in any part of food manufacturing, this includes people who work in meat packing, food packaging, fish processing, the sugar industry ect.

Who should take the food safety for caterers’ level 3 course?

This course is perfect for managers and supervisors in the food industry, this course covers in detail what the supervisor’s responsibilities are, as well as the best ways to train your staff on maintain good hygiene and carrying out good practices when preparing food. It will also look at environmental health officers and what policies you should have in place.

What will be recapped in the food hygiene courses?

In every food hygiene course, the laws surrounding food hygiene will be covered. This helps students to have refreshed knowledge and learn of any changes that have been made to the laws.

Other things such as the correct ways to store, process and preserve food. What cross contamination is, how to prevent it and how food poisoning can occur.

The courses will also cover the importance of personal hygiene in the food industry and why it is good to put measures in place to make sure that you keep to these good practices.

When should food hygiene certificates be renewed?

It is important that people renew their food hygiene certificates every 2 years. This can be done with refresher training using CPD courses.