Certified Food Safety Programs – Refreshed and Updated for 2026 and Why it Matters More This Year!

Welcome to September, and to National Food Safety Education Month! Every few years around this time, I put together an updated list of the food safety programs accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board under the Conference for Food Protection’s standards. That’s a mouthful, but here’s why it matters: the Food Code requires every foodservice operation to have a person in charge who can demonstrate knowledge of food safety. There are three ways to do that. The first is having no priority violations during the current inspection. The second is answering the inspector’s questions about your specific operation. The last and final way you can do this is by passing one of those accredited exams. But this year, I want to spend a minute on why that certification matters more than it did the last time I ran this post, because this summer sure didn’t seem like a normal outbreak summer.

If you spent the last three months pulling product off your shelves, you already know. This summer was a bad one, and the numbers say so plainly. Since the “Cyclospora season” opened on May 1, the CDC has confirmed 18,445 cases nationally, compared with roughly 1,180 over the same period last year. The single largest driver of this was the outbreak traced to processed iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico that sickened 11,458 people across 20 states, hospitalized at least 495, and killed two. It didn’t stop there. The FDA reported 431 illnesses and 57 hospitalizations across 32 states from Salmonella Javiana in jalapeños sourced from Sinaloa, Mexico. And alfalfa sprouts turned up again with a multi-pathogen outbreak involving three strains of E. coli plus Salmonella Agona, traced to Everything Sprouts, LLC.

Here’s what I want you to notice about all three. Not one of them was a cooking temperature failure. Not one was a handwashing failure. Every single one arrived at the back door of a foodservice facility already contaminated, in a case of produce that looked exactly like every other case of produce. Which means the skill that mattered most this summer wasn’t knife handling or cooling procedures. It was whether the person in charge knew what was in the walk-in, where it came from, and how fast they could get it out of service when the recall notice hit.

Which brings me to the question I still get more than any other: do I have to pass the exam? No, you don’t. As I said at the start, any one of the three routes satisfies the requirement, and two of them cost you nothing. But “satisfies the requirement” and “prepared for a summer like this one” are not the same standard, and this year made the gap between them awfully clear.

A note on which Food Code we’re talking about. The 2022 Food Code is still the most recent complete edition, updated by a supplement issued in November 2024. FDA has indicated a new full edition is coming this year, along with a companion Retail Program Standards manual. As I write this in early September, it hasn’t been published yet.

But remember, none of that changes your obligations. The Food Code is a model, it binds you only once your state, county, or city adopts it, and adoption runs years behind publication. Plenty of jurisdictions are still enforcing the 2017 edition. So, when the 2026 Code is published and the trade press starts running “changes are coming” headlines, the only question that matters for your operation is what your health department has adopted. Ask them.

What doesn’t change with any edition is the reason any of this exists. Here’s what I wrote the last time I ran this list, and I haven’t changed a word of it since:

… if my business were ever the source of a foodborne illness outbreak, I would certainly want to know that I had done everything in my power to protect my guests and having trained my employees who work on the front lines with the food I serve in my business would be the very least that I could do.

Training the people on your line is the part you control. So, here’s where to go get it.

The 2026 list of accredited programs

I pulled this directly from the ANAB directory of accredited food protection manager certification bodies on September 4, 2026. Thirteen organizations currently hold accreditation under the Conference for Food Protection standard.

Three are new since my last update: FoodSafePal (Dakota Dietitians), FMC Food Managers Certification(DSBWorldWide, doing business as EduClasses), and Userve. Everyone from the previous list is still accredited.

Accredited Food Manager Examinations[1]
Name of Organization	Website	Format	Published Price	Worth Knowing
AAA Trainers LLC (AAA Food Handler)	aaafoodhandler.com	Online training; remote proctored exam	Varies by jurisdiction. Estimated: Training from $49.95; Gold training + exam $99.95; Diamond training + exam $119.95; exam only $69.95	Remote proctoring included at no extra charge. Diamond package adds one free retake. Course and exam access expire one year from purchase.
APS Culinary Dynamics (World Food Safety Organization)	academy.worldfoodsafety.org	Online training; remote or in-person exam	Priced per course; it appears to be $95 for the Food Protection Manager and Certification Exam with live remote proctoring, with an additional $35 for an in-person proctoring fee.	Study courses sold individually or as a bundle. One year of course access.
Certus / StateFoodSafety	statefoodsafety.com	Online training; proctored exam online or in person	Varies by jurisdiction; exam is $28 plus proctor fee, training is $65. The training and Exam package is around $90 plus a proctor fee. Proctor fees run an additional $60 to $48.	Fail the exam, and you repurchase the exam, not the course. They do claim they are approved in more local jurisdictions than any other provider.
Dakota Dietitians (FoodSafePal)	foodsafepal.com	Online	Varies by jurisdiction. The combined training and exam package appears to be around $159, with the exam priced at $99 and the training at $125.	New to the accredited list.
DSBWorldWide (EduClasses / FMC)	foodmanagerscertification.com	Online training; proctored online or in person via Prometric	The combined training and exam package ranges from $80 (plus proctor fee) for online training to $120 (proctor cost included) for in-person exams. The exam is $25, and the training is $65.	New to the accredited list. One exam attempt.
Learn2Serve (360training)	360training.com/learn2serve	Online training: remote proctor included	The combined training and exam package is $121 and includes the proctor fee. The exam is $69.99, and the proctored exam is $65.	Two exam attempts are included in most packages.
My Food Service License	myfoodservicelicense.com	Online training; remote proctoring	The combined training and exam package is $139 or $189 with the eBook; both options include the proctor fee. The exam and proctor is $99.99, and the course is $165.	Runs promotional pricing often enough that the list price is rarely what you pay.
National Registry of Food Safety Professionals	nrfsp.com	Self-study or affiliate-delivered training; exam online or at a test center	The exam and proctor is $81.99.
National Restaurant Association (ServSafe)	servsafe.com	In-person or online training; exam in person or online proctored	Online course and exam are $179 and include a proctor; the online exam voucher is around $38.99 plus a proctor fee, or $99 with online proctoring; in-person classes vary depending on the host.	Extension offices and restaurant associations often run classes cheaper than buying direct.
Relish Works (Trust20)	trust20.co	Online training; remote-proctored	Exam $90 and includes proctoring; manager training $90	One attempt per exam purchase.
Responsible Training / Safeway Certifications	responsibletraining.com	Online training; remote-proctored	Course and exam are $95 with remote proctoring included.
The Always Food Safe Company	alwaysfoodsafe.com	Online video training; remote proctoring included	Training and exam $84; exam only $28; training only $65	One free retake included
Userve	userve.com	Online training; remote-proctored	The combined training and exam package is $119.99 (normally listed for $149) or $179 with the Management Toolkit; both options include the proctor fee. The exam and proctor are $89.99, and the course is $79.99.	The exam and course package includes unlimited exam attempts. The exsam only option incudes 3 free attempts.

[1] Information is current as of 9/3/2026

Several providers price by state, and their pricing appears to change regularly. If you want the number, get it from the checkout page on the day you buy it.

The sticker price is rarely the whole picture. A few things to note before you buy:

Some providers bundle it, some add proctor fees, and others ask you to find a local proctor. Compare the total, not the buy now price.
Retake policy. Many providers sell you one attempt. If you fail the exam, you have to retake the exam. If you’re training someone who tests poorly, paying more up front may end up being cheaper. I once had a student who did not test well and took the ServSafe exam five times before passing it.
State add-ons. A handful of states require separate allergen training from an accredited provider. Know what your start requires going in.
Many offer discounts at five or ten seats. If you’re certifying a management team rather than one person, ask, the rate isn’t always posted.
Training Program Quality. We are unable to rate the quality of the training program. A poor training program could increase the retake fees for the exam. The total cost is not always a guarantee of a good program.

I know some of you want me to tell you which program is best. I’m not going to, for the same reason I didn’t last time: it depends on how you learn, how you want to test, what your jurisdiction accepts, and what you can spend. I’m not endorsing any of these. I’m telling you they’re currently accredited.

Two things before you pay anyone. First, check the ANAB directory yourself. It tracks suspensions and withdrawals alongside active accreditations, and a program’s status can change between when I publish this and when you read it. Second, call your local health department and confirm they accept that specific exam.

Have you put a manager through one of these recently? Good experience, bad experience, surprise fee nobody warned you about? I’d like to hear it, and I may use it in a future post. Risk Nothing.

The Route to Safer Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Although fruits and vegetables are one of the healthiest foods sources in our diet, we continue to have foodborne disease outbreaks of significance from produce, sometimes affecting large groups of people in multiple states because of their wide distribution. The CDC estimates that fresh produce now causes a huge number of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. Produce needs our continued food safety efforts at the restaurant level as well as at the stages in agricultural production. Occasionally, fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated with harmful bacteria or viruses, such as Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, Norovirus, and Hepatitis A. This contamination can occur at any point from the field to our table. If eaten, contaminated fruits and vegetables can cause foodborne illness.

Be Cool, Chill Out, Refrigerate Promptly!

The Cold Chain -- Keeping perishable foods at proper cold holding temperatures (between 28°F and 41°F maximum or 0°F for frozen food) from your food producers / manufacturers to your customers has to be one of our strongest links to safe food and high quality. Sometimes that is referred to in the food industry as “maintaining the COLD CHAIN”. Any slip ups in the cold chain, and we have a weak link. Most all of our state food regulations require 41°F as a cold maximum, but colder is a “best practice” policy to maintain.

Cutting Board Safety

Everyone knows to prepare food only on a clean and sanitized surface. Everyone also knows not to prepare food on a surface previously used to prepare any type of uncooked meat—cross-contamination. But does everyone know what this clean, sanitized, uncontaminated surface should be made out of? Or how cutting boards should be cared for?

A Date with Safe Food Labels

When it comes to food, calendar dates relating to time and temperature are important and sometimes confusing. Terms we use are: 1) food product or code dating used for commercial food manufacturing and 2) date marking used for food prepared onsite in a restaurant. In a restaurant at the receiving step or the retail food store as a consumer, "Sell by July 14" is a type of information you might find on a meat or poultry product. Are dates required on food products? Does it mean the product will be unsafe to use after that date? Here is some background information, which answers these and other questions about food product dating.