ServSafe is a food and beverage safety training and certificate program administered by the U.S.

National Restaurant Association The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The associ ...

. The program is accredited by

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organ ...

and the Conference for Food Protection. It is considered a system that aims to prevent foodborne illnesses based on a set of guidelines to improve safety and hygiene in the food preparation process. Sanitation certification is required by most restaurants as a basic credential for their management staff. To date over 5 million ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certifications have been awarded.

Content

ServSafe Essentials Seventh Edition is the latest edition of the program. The course discusses

foodborne illness Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow ...

es, including information on specific foodborne pathogens and biological toxins, such as

shellfish poisoning Shellfish poisoning includes four syndromes that share some common features and are primarily associated with bivalve molluscs (such as mussels, clams, oysters and scallops.) As filter feeders, these shellfish may accumulate toxins produced by ...

, contamination, and

food allergens A food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food. The symptoms of the allergic reaction may range from mild to severe. They may include itchiness, swelling of the tongue, vomiting, diarrhea, hives, trouble breathing, or low blood pressur ...

. Prevention is also covered, with information regarding purchasing and receiving guidelines, food preparation, holding, and serving guidelines, food safety management systems, sanitation guidelines for facilities and equipment, and integrated pest control, as well as food safety regulations and employee training.

Certifications

The various certifications that ServSafe offers are the following: ServSafe Food Manager Certification, ServSafe Food Handler Certification, ServSafe Alcohol Certification, ServSafe Allergens Certification, and the ServSafe Workplace Certification.

Examinations

In order to pass all of the ServSafe examinations, one must receive a score of 70% or higher. For the Managers Examination, at least 60 out of 80 questions must be answered correctly. The examination contains 10 extra questions that serve for research purposes only. For the Alcohol Examination, at least 30 out of 40 questions must be answered correctly. For the ServSafe Alcohol Advanced Examination, which is proctored, one must receive a score of 80% or higher, by answering at least 56 out of 70 questions correctly. Lastly, for the Food Handler Examination, one must receive a 75% by answering 30 out of the 40 questions correctly.

References

External links

* Food safety in the United States National Restaurant Association Professional titles and certifications {{food-stub