Level 3 Food Hygiene Certificate Online

A Level 3 food hygiene certificate shows you can supervise food safety, not only handle food safely. This online Level 3 course is for supervisors, managers, head chefs and anyone responsible for a food safety plan. It takes about 6 to 7 hours, costs £99.00 + VAT for one learner, and your certificate is ready the moment you pass.

Level 3 food hygiene training is for you if you make sure food safety happens in your business, not only if you handle food. It covers everything in Level 2 in more depth, then focuses on the supervisor’s role, which means putting food safety management procedures in place, training and monitoring staff, and dealing with complaints, incidents and inspections. Everything is delivered as online training, so supervisors can fit it around shifts.

What the food safety course covers

By the end of the training you will be able to:

• Explain why food safety matters in catering and retail food businesses, including food safety culture
• Identify the main food safety hazards (microbiological, chemical, physical and allergenic) and explain how to control contamination
• Describe the causes and symptoms of food poisoning and food-borne illness, and how to prevent them, with a focus on common pathogens
• Explain safe chilling, freezing, defrosting, cooking, reheating and hot-holding, and the critical temperatures involved
• Describe proper food storage, preservation, stock rotation and the importance of Best Before and Use By dates
• Explain the principles of HACCP and how to implement and manage a food safety management system
• Explain food handlers’ responsibilities for personal hygiene, hand washing and protective clothing, and the supervisor’s role in monitoring them
• Describe the supervisor’s role in compliance with food safety law, including staff training, hygiene monitoring and enforcing procedures
• Explain cleaning, disinfection and waste control, and how to put effective cleaning schedules in place
• Describe how to work with suppliers, manage deliveries and keep food traceable
• Explain the supervisor’s role in food safety incidents, complaints, food poisoning outbreaks and inspections
• Describe how food premises and equipment should be designed and maintained, including pest control

Level 3 for supervisors and managers in a food business

The training is for you if you supervise food handlers as a manager, supervisor, team leader or head chef in a catering or retail food business, or manage food safety for the business, including if you are stepping up from Level 2. At a trade show, exhibition or other event, it suits you if you are in charge of a food stand. You write the stand food safety plan, brief the team and talk to the organiser or an environmental health officer if they visit.

HACCP and food safety management systems

UK food law, including the Food Safety Act 1990 and the food hygiene regulations, expects food business operators to have food safety procedures based on HACCP principles, and someone has to run them day to day. The law also says that whoever develops and maintains those procedures should have “received adequate training in the application of the HACCP principles” (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter XII). That is the responsibility behind most supervisor roles. The training shows you how to identify where the risk is in your own food handling, set critical limits, check and record them, and put things right when a check is missed. It also covers maintaining the system, which means reviewing it when the menu, suppliers or equipment change, and making sure new staff receive the right training before they start.

Whether you use the Food Standards Agency Safer Food, Better Business pack or your own HACCP plan, the course gives you the understanding to keep it accurate rather than just filling in forms, which is what an inspecting officer looks for when they set your food hygiene rating. Ratings run from 0 to 5, and one of the three things the officer scores is how you manage food safety, including your processes, training and systems. You need to do well in all three to get a 5 (FSA food hygiene rating guidance).

Why the supervisor’s role matters

When food safety slips, people get ill. The Food Standards Agency estimates around 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness in the UK each year, with about 16,400 hospital admissions (FSA Research and Evidence). As a supervisor you are the person who stops the habits behind those numbers, and the person an officer, a customer or an event organiser will ask when something goes wrong. This course gives you the knowledge to answer with confidence and the records to back it up.

How the online food hygiene training works

There are 14 short video lessons, and most people take about 6 to 7 hours in total. There is no time limit, so you can spread it over days or weeks and pick up where you left off. Each lesson ends with a short quiz before you move on.

Assessment and your food safety certificate

The final assessment has a pass mark of 80%. If you do not pass first time you can retake it as many times as you need at no extra cost. Your digital certificate is ready the moment you pass, with your name, the course and the date, so you can download it straight away.

The course is endorsed by the Institute of Hospitality and matches the CIEH and RSPH syllabus. It was designed and is presented by a Chartered Environmental Health Officer, has been reviewed by Environmental Health Officers and is accepted by local authorities.

Buying Level 3 for yourself or your supervisors

For yourself, choose 1 place and pay, then enter your own email. We email you a login that opens the course straight away. Buying for several supervisors works the same way, and the price per person drops as you add places. £99.00 + VAT a place for 1 to 4 people, falling to £79.00 from 25 people. A team of 10 costs £840.00 + VAT. You can give the places out by email from My team and download each certificate there.

Level 2 food hygiene certificate or Level 3, which do you need?

If you supervise staff or run the food safety plan, you need Level 3. Most businesses train their supervisors to Level 3 and everyone else who handles open food to Level 2.

• Level 1. Best for staff in low-risk roles who only handle wrapped food. We do not offer a Level 1 course.
• Level 2. Best for anyone who prepares, cooks, serves, sells or samples open food. Our Level 2 Food Hygiene and Safety for Catering course takes about 3 hours.
• Level 3 (this course). Best for supervisors, managers, head chefs, and whoever is in charge of a food stand at a trade show or event. It adds HACCP, food safety management and the supervisor’s role.

How we compared the levels

We matched each level to the job it is written for and to what the syllabus adds at each step, using the two training duties in food hygiene law. Staff who handle food need training in line with their work, and whoever develops or runs your HACCP-based procedures needs adequate training in HACCP principles (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004).

Not sure which a role needs? Read who needs a Level 3 food safety course, or see what a food safety management system is and our guide to a food safety plan for an exhibition stand.