SERVICE
Get a food handler card
Take an online food safety class to get your approved license to work with food in California.
What to know
Cost
$6.95 to $15- Online class with an exam
- Start and stop at any time
- Get card right away when you finish
Who should get certified
Most people who prepare, store, or serve food at the retail level in California need to have a food handlers card:
- prep cooks
- line cooks
- bartenders
- servers and hosts
- people who sell food they make at home
What to do
Get your card online
You must take a short food safety training class. You can take this class online.
After the class, you will answer questions about food safety to earn your card.
If you answer the questions correctly, you will be given your food handler card right away.
These online food safety classes are accepted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Supporting information
Special cases
When you do not need this card
Most people who work with food need to have a food handler card in California. Your facility can get a health code violation if you do not have your card.
But you do not need a card if you volunteer or work at a:
- certified farmers market
- food supply store or supermarket for the military (commissary)
- grocery store (unless it is a separately owned food business inside of the store)
- licensed health care facility
- mobile support unit
- public and private school cafeteria
- retail store where a majority of sales are from a pharmacy
- snack bar at a place where the majority of sales are from admission tickets
- elderly nutrition programs
- city, county, and state detention facilities, like a jail, juvenile hall, camp, or ranch
Becoming a food safety manager
By law, at least 1 person at a retail food facility like a restaurant has to be a food safety manager.
This person can be the:
- owner
- manager
- chef
- cook
Get help
Questions
Partner agencies
What to know
Cost
$6.95 to $15- Online class with an exam
- Start and stop at any time
- Get card right away when you finish
Who should get certified
Most people who prepare, store, or serve food at the retail level in California need to have a food handlers card:
- prep cooks
- line cooks
- bartenders
- servers and hosts
- people who sell food they make at home
What to do
Get your card online
You must take a short food safety training class. You can take this class online.
After the class, you will answer questions about food safety to earn your card.
If you answer the questions correctly, you will be given your food handler card right away.
These online food safety classes are accepted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Supporting information
Special cases
When you do not need this card
Most people who work with food need to have a food handler card in California. Your facility can get a health code violation if you do not have your card.
But you do not need a card if you volunteer or work at a:
- certified farmers market
- food supply store or supermarket for the military (commissary)
- grocery store (unless it is a separately owned food business inside of the store)
- licensed health care facility
- mobile support unit
- public and private school cafeteria
- retail store where a majority of sales are from a pharmacy
- snack bar at a place where the majority of sales are from admission tickets
- elderly nutrition programs
- city, county, and state detention facilities, like a jail, juvenile hall, camp, or ranch
Becoming a food safety manager
By law, at least 1 person at a retail food facility like a restaurant has to be a food safety manager.
This person can be the:
- owner
- manager
- chef
- cook