Food hygiene refresher training
Retraining for food handlers whose Level 2 (or Level 3 for supervisors) certificate is getting old.
Retraining for food handlers whose Level 2 (or Level 3 for supervisors) certificate is getting old. There is no single named legal renewal period — the law requires "adequate" ongoing training and supervision, and a certificate that predates half your current menu or your current kitchen layout is a weak answer to that. Industry practice, and what most EHOs expect to see, is a refresh roughly every 3 years.
An EHO can and does ask staff hygiene questions directly during inspection, and "commensurate training" is a direct legal duty, not a courtesy. Relying on a certificate from a previous job or a previous menu leaves you unable to show training is actually current, which counts against you even if no one has done anything wrong.
FSA guidance on what "adequate training" means and how to choose an accredited course.
Who this is for
Any food handler whose last hygiene certificate is around 3 years old or older, or whose role has changed since they trained.
What you’ll hold
- Updated Level 2 (or 3) certificate per handler
- Internal training record showing renewal dates
Watch out for
- Treating "no fixed legal date" as "never needs redoing" — an EHO still expects to see training stay current, even without a named renewal period in law.
- Refreshing the whole team on the same date regardless of when each person actually qualified, so records end up bunched and hard to track individually.
- Skipping refreshers for long-serving staff because they "obviously know it" — a certificate gap is what the EHO checks, not tenure.
Sources
- GOV.UK — Running a food business: staff training, illness and hygiene checked 2026-09-08
See also
- Level 2 food hygiene for every handler— this becomes part of getting open →
This is item 21 of 60 in the free UK Compliance Calendar. See the whole list →