Food Safety Requirements

• Food Safety Training Required For Managers: Yes
• Food Safety Training Required Food Handlers: No
• SafeMark Classroom Training Approved: Yes
  
• Minimum Number of Training Hours Required: 15
• SafeMark Online Training Approved: Yes
  
• Training Frequency Required: 5
• SafeMark National Registry Exam Approved: Yes.
• Certification Exam Required: Yes,
• Certification Exam Frequency:
  5
• Re-certification Exam Required: Yes

2.     Obtain a written waiver from IDPH for a course you have taken elsewhere. Then, complete the Illinois FSSMC examination with a score of at least 75 percent and pay the $35 certificate fee to IDPH. A person may qualify for a course waiver if he/she has completed a course that was at least 15 hours in length and contained, at a minimum, the same material content as the Illinois course. The course must have been completed within the last five years.

3.     Qualify for a certificate through reciprocity. If a person holds a food service manager certificate issued by the Chicago Department of Public Health, submit a copy, along with a completed FSSMC request form, to IDPH and ask that an Illinois food service sanitation manager certificate be issued through reciprocity. Send no money with the FSSMC request form. After the Department verifies the authenticity of your certificate from the city of Chicago, you will be mailed a FSSMC application, which should be completed and returned to IDPH along with the $35 certificate fee.

09/25/2009