What is a Food Handler?
A Food Handler is anyone who handles food as part of his or her position. This can include chefs, cooks, supermarket workers, baristas, food processing workers, food delivery drivers, childcare workers and typically anyone else who touches food at work or while volunteering.
What training do Food Handlers require?
Food Standard 3.2.2A specifies exactly what needs to be covered in training of all Food Handlers that work in Category 1 and Category 2 businesses in Australia.
Category 1 businesses include restaurants, cafes, takeaway food shops, caterers, hospitals, childcare centres, family daycares, bakeries, mobile food vendors, market stalls, supermarkets and service stations that make and serve food.
Category 2 businesses include supermarkets, delis, service stations, seafood retailers, market stalls, and convenience stores.
Food safety training courses for Food Handlers must include training on:
Safe handling of food, including:
temperature control measures for potentially hazardous food
understanding of the Temperature Danger Zone
Food contamination, including:
strategies to keep raw and cooked food separate
allergen management
food storage
use of separate utensils and chopping boards
Cleaning and sanitising food premises and equipment, including:
correct procedures for cleaning, then sanitising
using food-safe chemicals
using heat as a sanitiser
As food businesses are responsible for making sure that their Food Handling staff are properly trained in food safety, they often include this certificate as a job requirement. This is because a Food Handler course is a great way of ensuring that all Food Handlers in a food organisation have received the appropriate food safety training.
The official Australian Institute of Food Safety Food Handler Course is nationally recognised and meets all the Food Handler training requirements under Food Standard 3.2.2A.