CDC Endorses Certification of Food Safety Kitchen Managers

In 2006, an EHS-Net study titled Systematic Environmental Evaluations to Identify Food Safety Differences Between Outbreak and Nonoutbreak Restaurants [PDF - 195 KB] found that restaurants with managers certified in food safety are less likely to be involved in foodborne disease outbreaks than were restaurants without managers certified in food safety. This finding is important because it suggests that restaurant manager food safety certification may provide a protective effect against foodborne illness.

As a result of this finding, CDC wrote a letter [PDF - 128 KB] to the Conference for Food Protection concerning restaurant manager food safety certification. The letter informed conference delegates of the study findings with regard to manager food safety certification and expressed CDC’s support for the presence of food safety certified managers in food service establishments.

Although Conference for Food Protection has no regulatory authority, it does influence laws and regulations through recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was responsible for the U.S. Public Health Service FDA Food Code.