Tennessee Food Manager Certification Online

What are the Tennessee food safety regulations?

Tennessee’s food safety regulations are the responsibility of many different departments.  

The Tennessee Department of Health’s Division of General Environmental Health inspects and enforces the rules and regulations for food service establishments. However, retail food stores and foodservice operations within them are regulated by the Department of Agriculture. 

No matter what type of restaurant, food mart, or grocery store you work at, you must follow the guidelines in the Tennessee Food Safety Act. This act established the person in charge must be able to demonstrate their knowledge of food safety. 

There are two ways the person in charge can demonstrate their knowledge: 

1. Respond correctly to the inspector's questions as they relate to the specific food operation. 
2. Being a certified food protection manager who has shown proficiency of the required information through passing a test that is part of an accredited program. 

To meet the requirements, you can take our Certified Food Protection Manager exam.  

How long is the food manager certification good for?

Tennessee doesn’t list a specific expiration date, but when you pass our food manager test, your certification is good for five years. Once the five years are up, it will expire, and you will need to take the test again to get re-certified. This is typical for the majority of food manager certification programs. 

Can you take the Tennessee food manager exam online?

Yes, your exam will be administered through our online proctor service. The Learn2Serve Food Protection Manager Certification Exam is accredited by the American National Standards Institute and the Conference for Food Protection (ANSI-CFP).

Learn more about the policies and procedures required to successfully complete our online proctored exam.

How can food managers in Tennessee improve food safety? 

Because food managers are in charge of food operations, they have a major role to play when it comes to health and safety. Foodborne illness is a serious danger.  

According to data from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, over a 10-year period (2003-2012), there were a total of 180 foodborne illness outbreaks in Tennessee. And the two most common pathogens found were Norovirus and Salmonella—which are both preventable with the right food safety protocols in place. 

So as a food manager, you can ensure that staff members are properly trained in how to handle food, you’ve developed the right HACCP procedures, and you keep your certifications current. 

What do food managers do?

Food managers in Tennessee can have many different job titles. But they typically have some kind of supervisory or managerial responsibilities. In addition to ensuring food safety, they will: 

• Provide a high standard of customer service, as well as handle customer complaints 
• Execute on payroll, inventory, deliveries and sales projections 
• Direct overall restaurant operations including cooking, cleaning, and ordering 
• Create schedules to minimize labor costs and maximize productivity 

To give you an idea of how much you can make, here are some wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that shows the average amount of money you can expect to make in senior management positions in the Tennessee foodservice industry:  

Getting your food safety manager certification is an important qualification for getting one of these jobs!