FAQs

Anyone who works within a food business and handles either food, or food surfaces that are likely to be in contact with food such as benches, cutlery and crockery. A food handler may work in a number of different roles, such as:

1. kitchen hands
2. cooks
3. chefs
4. catering staff
5. food and beverage attendants
6. housekeeping and laundry staff
7. sandwich hands
8. cafe and fast food outlet cooking crews
9. sales people and
10. owner-operators of small business catering operations or retail food outlets.

This course applies to the following industries, including the:

1. hospitality industry
2. commercial catering industry and
3. retail industry venues where food is stored, prepared, displayed and served.

Venues relevant to this course include any venue that operates a permanent or temporary kitchen or smaller food preparation area, such as:

1. Restaurants
2. Fast food outlets
3. Retail outlets (such as food court outlets and sandwich shops)
4. Cafes
5. Clubs
6. Hotels
7. Attractions
8. Events and
9. Conference venues.

Under the current legislation, food handlers are not required to complete specific training. However, there is a general obligation under the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) for food businesses to ensure that anyone undertaking or supervising food handling operations have the necessary skills in food safety and food hygiene matters and knowledge of food safety and food hygiene matters, appropriate to their work activities.

Yes, the Food Handlers Certificate course is recognised throughout Australia. The course addresses the requirements of ‘SITXFSA005 – Use hygienic practices for food safety’ from the SIT07 Tourism, Hospitality and Events Training Package.

Your Food Handlers Certificate (and Statement of Attainment) does not have an expiry date.

If you only require a very general introduction to food safety in the hospitality and retail industries, and do not need to understand the details of how to control and eliminate food hazards in the workplace, then you would benefit from the ‘Introduction to Food Handling’ course. If you are in a high-risk role in a food business (e.g. owner, chef, cook, kitchen hand, catering staff etc.) then it is recommended that you complete our accredited ‘Food Handling Certificate’ course. You will be issued with a nationally recognised Statement of Attainment, accepted in all food handling hospitality and retail industries. This course is also the pre-requisite for any learners wanting to undertake the ‘Food Safety Supervisor Certificate’. This course is coming soon and will provide the qualification for Food Safety Supervisors.

There are currently 24 qualifications that include ‘SITXFSA005 – Use hygienic practices for food safety’ from the SIT07 Tourism, Hospitality and Events Training Package including:

• SIT40422 – Certificate IV in Hospitality
• TLI22321 – Certificate II in Rail Customer Service
• SIT40821 – Certificate IV in Asian Cookery
• SIT50422 – Diploma of Hospitality Management
• SIT10122 – Certificate I in Tourism (Australian Indigenous Culture)
• SIT20421 – Certificate II in Cookery
• SIT30722 – Certificate III in Hospitality (Restaurant Front of House)
• SIS30122 – Certificate III in Sport, Aquatics and Recreation
• SIT30622 – Certificate III in Hospitality
• SIT30122 – Certificate III in Tourism
• HLT23221 – Certificate II in Health Support Services
• SIT60322 – Advanced Diploma of Hospitality Management
• SIT30322 – Certificate III in Guiding
• SIT40521 – Certificate IV in Kitchen Management
• SIT30921 – Certificate III in Catering
• SIT40721 – Certificate IV in Patisserie
• SIT10222 – Certificate I in Hospitality
• SIT31121 – Certificate III in Asian Cookery
• SIT40621 – Certificate IV in Catering Management
• SIT20122 – Certificate II in Tourism
• SIT20322 – Certificate II in Hospitality
• SIT31021 – Certificate III in Patisserie
• SIT30821 – Certificate III in Commercial Cookery
• SIT40222 – Certificate IV in Guiding

Once your Final Assessment has been assessed by our team, to confirm your answers are valid and appropriate, you will receive a confirmation email containing your Statement of Attainment. If you do not pass a particular assessment, you will receive detailed feedback from the Assessor and be asked to re-submit the assessment. The usual turnaround for your results is two working days. If you have not received your result within this time, please Click Here to contact our support centre and we will be able to update you on the progress of your assessment.

Broadband/Cable Internet is required. 3G Wireless, including the ones having USB Wireless Modems, are NOT recommended, neither is dial-up as it is not suitable.

The supported browsers for this course include Internet Explorer 8+, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Your browser should be up to date with the latest version for optimal performance. This course is compatible with desktop computers (screen resolution of at least 1024×768), iPad, iPhone, iPad mini, android tablets and android phones.

The following plugins and software are free. Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 9 – our preferred internet browsers. Adobe Flash plugin – required to display the course. Adobe Acrobat Reader – used to view/print your certificate.

You can log back in and print or email your certificates any time you need to (provided they are still valid), please Contact Us if you are having any difficulties logging in. Please check your receipt to confirm that you did the course through us. We can only help if you have registered with us.

Some email programs direct these kinds of emails to the “junk mail” folder, so check here first. If you still cannot locate it send an email to our support and they will assist you. Also our website provides a “Forgotten Password” function which after answering your chosen questions will email you back your registration email.

You have access to the system to complete the course for 3 months from when you make payment.

The good news is that you can continue to take the assessments until you pass, at no additional costs. You will only be able to proceed to the next assessment once the previous one has been passed.

You can pay via credit or visa debit card. Alternatively we can send you an EFT form, or you can send us a money order (we accept no responsibility for money orders that are lost in the post). In both of these cases it can take 3-5 days to gain access to the course.

Please contact your accountant for information on this.

Then visit our Support Centre. We are here to answer any further questions you may have or to get you started.

To listen to the voiceover and play each page, you will need to press the ‘Touch to play audio button’ at the top right corner of each page.

If you experience any issues with text or images displaying on your iPad, simply press the ‘Replay’ button to reload the page. All text and images should now display correctly.

Click Here to download a copy of your Third Party Report Student Guide & Third Party Evidence Report Template which contains instructions for completing your Third Party Observation Assessment.

If you are not yet working, we can issue you with an interim Certificate of Completion once you have passed your Short Answer and Verbal Assessments and completed the Student Integrity Declaration. Once you do start working you will be able to complete the observations in your new workplace and submit your Third Party Report, and we can then issue you with your Statement of Attainment. Alternatively, you can complete volunteer shifts at a local cafe, restaurant, school canteen etc. (as long as it is an operational commercial food preparation area, bar or kitchen) and ask the supervisor of that food business to complete the observations and fill in and sign your Third Party Report. You will need to complete a number of shifts over a period of time (e.g. several shifts completed over 1 to 2 weeks).

Your supervisor or manager is generally the best person to do the observations and sign your Third Party Report. The person will need to work closely with you and be able to observe you completing the tasks correctly. They will need to have experience in the tasks they will be observing or hold the relevant qualification (e.g. SITXFSA001: Use hygiene practices for food safety or Food Safety Supervisor).

Beginning in 2015 if you are undertaking nationally recognised training delivered by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) you will need to have a Unique Student Identifier (USI). Your USI gives you access to your online USI account which will contain all your nationally recognised training records and results from 1 January 2015 onwards.

If you don’t already have your USI number this can be created easily through the profile section of your account. For more information regarding the USI please visit www.usi.gov.au.