Food Safety Manager Requirements

Beginning January 10, 2010, all food establishments in Alabama must have a food protection manager certified through an accredited program to meet Alabama Department of Public Health requirements.

There are only two different programs being offered in Alabama. Your first option is to take and pass the ServSafe course. This 2-3 day course was designed mainly for restaurants; however the Department of Public Health will accept this certification for grocery stores as well. The county departments of Public Health as well as the Alabama Extension offices have offerings for this course. They range in price from $71 to $175. Please contact your local health department or extension office if you choose to take your training in this manner.

Your second option is to take the SuperSafeMark course, which Alabama Grocers Association is offering and was developed by the Food Marking Institute. This course is the only food safety training designed specifically for supermarket managers to provide a comprehensive review to help employees prepare for any food safety manager exam. We highly recommend you taking this course.

AGA has partnered with Learn Something to provide the SuperSafeMark course online for our members. To receive the training you need to go to www.aga.learnsomething.com, and follow these step by step instructions. Please click here for these instructions. The total cost of the SuperSafeMark course is $110.00. The online training portion is $60 and the test portion is $50.

You will pay for the online portion when you sign up for training. This 16-hour SuperSafeMark course prepares you to take an accredited CPFM exam.

Please note that you do not have to complete the training in one day. You have a total of 90 days to complete once you purchase the training. Once you close your browser and come back to do more training you need to re-enter your login name (which is your e-mail address you provided) and the password you entered when you set up your account. You should also receive this information by e-mail when you originally sign up for the training.

Once you have taken the online training you must then take a written test and pass it to receive certification. We will be offering this test at the Association Office on the following dates: Friday, September 4; Thursday, September 17; Friday, October 2; Wednesday, October 21; Friday, November 6; Wednesday, November 18; Friday, December 4 and Wednesday, December 16, 2009.

Testing will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. A maximum of 10 people will be allowed per session. The Association office is located at 300 Vestavia Parkway, Ste 3500, Birmingham, AL 35216.

If you would like to reserve one of the upcoming testing sessions to take your Food Protection Manager test, please call the association office at 800-844-2391 and pre-pay the test fee of $50 with a credit card.

Please ensure that someone in your company has this training by January 10, 2010.