Does Your Store Need a Certified Food Protection Manager?

A store that prepares, serves or holds food for customers needs one person present who answers for it during all hours of operation, subject to two narrow exceptions, and the model Food Code names that person: the person in charge. Where a state or city has adopted the model code’s provision, the person in charge must also be a certified food protection manager, unless the local regulator has decided the type of operation poses minimal risk. A store that sells only sealed food needing no refrigeration may fall outside the Food Code’s definition of a food establishment altogether. Which of those three positions your store occupies decides whether you need a certificate, whose name belongs on it, and what an inspector can ask the person holding it.

The sections quoted in this article are from the FDA Food Code 2026 as it stands on 28 October 2026. The Person-in-Charge Card, a one-page record, turns them into a form you fill in before the next inspection.

A model code that binds your store only where adopted

The FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) describes itself in its preface: “The model Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive.” The FDA’s Food Code 2026 page states what it is instead: “The Food Code is a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer. It represents FDA’s best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety of food offered at retail and in food service.” The same page adds that “The FDA encourages its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to adopt the latest version of the FDA Food Code.”

A Food Code provision binds your store only where your state, county or city has written it into its own rules, and jurisdictions adopt different editions at different times. The preface notes that the FDA’s list of adopting jurisdictions “is self-reported, and FDA has not yet evaluated whether all the adopted codes are equivalent to the model Food Code.” Read every quotation that follows as what your local rule probably looks like if it follows the 2026 model, and confirm the edition with your health department.

Two conventions in the quotations need a word. An asterisk and capital letters mark a term the Food Code defines in its Chapter 1, and they are kept as they appear in the 2026 edition. Most paragraphs quoted from Chapter 2 end in the code with a superscript Pf, the mark of a priority foundation item, which Chapter 1 defines as “a provision in this Code whose application supports, facilitates or enables one or more *PRIORITY ITEMS.” The mark is a designation rather than part of the sentence, and it is left off the quotations.

The first test: is your store a food establishment at all

Chapter 1 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) defines the term every later section hangs on. A food establishment “means an operation that” does two things. First, it “Stores, prepares, *PACKAGES, serves, vends *FOOD directly to the *CONSUMER, or otherwise provides *FOOD for human consumption such as a restaurant”, in a list that runs on through catering to markets, vending locations, institutions and food banks. Second, it “Relinquishes possession of *FOOD to a *CONSUMER directly, or indirectly through a delivery service such as home delivery of grocery orders or restaurant takeout orders, or delivery service that is provided by common carriers.” A store with a deli case, a roller grill or a coffee station meets both parts on its face.

The definition then lists seven operations the term “does not include”, and the first one matters to a store that sells nothing but sealed goods:

(a) “An establishment that offers only pre-*PACKAGED *FOODS that are not *TIME/TEMPERATURE CONTROL FOR SAFETY FOODS”;
(b) “A produce stand that only offers whole, uncut fresh fruits and vegetables”;
(c) “A *FOOD PROCESSING PLANT; including those that are located on the *PREMISES of a *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT”;
(d) “A kitchen in a private home if only *FOOD that is not *TIME/TEMPERATURE CONTROL FOR SAFETY FOOD, is prepared for sale or service at a function such as a religious or charitable organization’s bake sale”, on two further conditions: the law allows it, and a placard tells the consumer the kitchen is not inspected;
(e) “An area where *FOOD that is prepared as specified in Subparagraph (3)(d) of this definition is sold or offered for human consumption”;
(f) “A kitchen in a private home, such as a small family day-care provider; or a bed-and-breakfast operation that prepares and offers *FOOD to guests”, on five conditions covering owner occupancy, bedroom and guest counts, breakfast only, and notice to the guest; or
(g) “A private home that receives catered or home-delivered *FOOD.”

Exclusion (a) has two conditions, and both must hold: every food on offer is pre-packaged, and none of it is a time/temperature control for safety food. A store whose only open food is a coffee pot, or whose only refrigerated items are sealed sandwiches from a commissary, has to work through both halves with its health department rather than assume it is out. Everything from here on applies to a store that is a food establishment.

A person in charge, present during all hours of operation

Section 2-101.11 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) places the duty on the permit holder: “Except as specified in ¶¶ (B) and (C) of this section, the *PERMIT HOLDER shall be the *PERSON IN CHARGE or shall designate a *PERSON IN CHARGE and shall ensure that a *PERSON IN CHARGE is present at the *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT during all hours of operation.”

Both terms are defined in Chapter 1. The permit holder is the entity that “Is legally responsible for the operation of the *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT such as the owner, the owner’s agent, or other *PERSON” and that holds a valid permit. The person in charge “means the individual present at a *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT who is responsible for the operation at the time of inspection.” Read together, the owner may fill the role in person or name someone else, but someone holds it whenever the store is open, the overnight shift included.

Paragraph (B) covers a building with more than one permit. Where “two or more separately *PERMITTED departments” are the legal responsibility of the same permit holder on the same premises, that permit holder may, during “specific time periods when *FOOD is not being prepared, *PACKAGED, or served”, designate a single person in charge who is present on the premises during all hours of operation and responsible for “each separately *PERMITTED *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT on the *PREMISES.”

Paragraph (C) is the exemption, and it belongs to the regulator rather than to the store: “This section does not apply to certain types of *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT[S] deemed by the *REGULATORY AUTHORITY to pose minimal *RISK of causing, or contributing to, foodborne illness based on the nature of the operation and extent of the *FOOD preparation.” The regulatory authority “means the local, state, or federal enforcement body or authorized representative having jurisdiction over the *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT.” A store cannot deem itself minimal risk.

Three ways to demonstrate knowledge

Section 2-102.11 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) sets the standard the person in charge is held to: “Based on the *RISKS inherent to the *FOOD operation, during inspections and upon request the *PERSON IN CHARGE shall demonstrate to the *REGULATORY AUTHORITY knowledge of foodborne disease prevention”, and the sentence runs on to hazard analysis and critical control point principles and the requirements of the code. It then says: “The *PERSON IN CHARGE shall demonstrate this knowledge by:” and gives three paragraphs, in this order:

(A) “Complying with this Code by having no violations of *PRIORITY ITEMS during the current inspection”;
(B) “Being a certified *FOOD protection manager who has shown proficiency of required information through passing a test that is part of an *ACCREDITED PROGRAM”; or
(C) “Responding correctly to the inspector’s questions as they relate to the specific *FOOD operation.”

The word that joins (B) to (C) is or. Under 2-102.11 on its own, a clean inspection, a certificate or correct answers each satisfies the demonstration. Route (A) depends on the day, since one priority-item violation during the inspection removes it. Section 2-102.12 then turns the certificate from one option among three into a requirement.

The eighteen areas the inspector may ask about

Route (C) is a live oral test. Section 2-102.11(C) of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) says “The areas of knowledge include”, and lists eighteen. In the code’s order, the person in charge may be asked about:

the relationship between preventing foodborne disease and “the personal hygiene of a *FOOD EMPLOYEE”;
the person in charge’s responsibility for preventing transmission by an employee “who has a disease or medical condition that may cause foodborne disease”;
“the symptoms associated with the diseases that are transmissible through *FOOD”;
the significance of time and temperature control for safety food and “the prevention of foodborne illness”;
“the *HAZARDS involved in the consumption of raw or undercooked *MEAT, *POULTRY, *EGGS, and *FISH”;
the required temperatures and times for safe cooking of that food, including meat, poultry, eggs and fish;
the required temperatures and times for its “safe refrigerated storage, hot holding, cooling, and reheating”;
the management and control of cross contamination, hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, handwashing, and keeping the establishment “in a clean condition and in good repair”;
the foods identified as major food allergens and “the symptoms that a *MAJOR FOOD ALLERGEN could cause in a sensitive individual who has an allergic reaction”;
food safety and equipment that is “Sufficient in number and capacity” and properly designed, constructed, located, installed, operated, maintained and cleaned;
“correct procedures for cleaning and *SANITIZING *UTENSILS and *FOOD-CONTACT SURFACES of *EQUIPMENT”;
the source of water used and the measures that keep it protected, “such as providing protection from backflow and precluding the creation of cross connections”;
poisonous or toxic materials in the establishment and the procedures that keep them “safely stored, dispensed, used, and disposed of according to *LAW” (2-102.11(C)(13));
the critical control points “in the operation from purchasing through sale or service” and the steps that keep them controlled;
how the person in charge and food employees comply with the HACCP plan “if a plan is required by the *LAW, this Code, or an agreement between the *REGULATORY AUTHORITY and the *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT”;
“the responsibilities, rights, and authorities assigned by this Code to the” food employee, conditional employee, person in charge and regulatory authority;
how the person in charge, food employees and conditional employees “comply with reporting responsibilities and *EXCLUSION or *RESTRICTION of *FOOD EMPLOYEES”;
“steps that are taken to prevent intentional *ADULTERATION by *CONSUMERS, *EMPLOYEES, or other *PERSONS”, including monitoring for unusual or suspicious activity and “other *FOOD DEFENSE activities”.

Item 18 entered the code through the Supplement to the 2022 Food Code, which the FDA’s Food Code adoption report says was published in November 2024, and the 2026 edition carries it forward. Against the base 2022 edition, item 18 is new. The 2026 summary of changes, which lists the Supplement’s amendments together with the edition’s own, reads: “Amended ¶ 2-102.11(C) to add sub¶ 2-102.11(C)(18) to include an additional area of knowledge of food defense as it relates to food establishments.” The questions are tied to your store rather than to a textbook, since paragraph (C) frames them “as they relate to the specific *FOOD operation”. Eighteen areas is still a long oral examination for whoever is on the floor when the inspector walks in, and the certificate exists so that the person in charge is not sitting it cold.

The certification requirement, its exemption, and whose name is on the certificate

Section 2-102.12 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) carries the requirement that gives this article its title. Paragraph (A): “The *PERSON IN CHARGE shall be a certified *FOOD protection manager who has shown proficiency of required information through passing a test that is part of an *ACCREDITED PROGRAM.”

Paragraph (B) carries the exemption, in almost the same words as 2-101.11(C): “This section does not apply to certain types of *FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS deemed by the *REGULATORY AUTHORITY to pose minimal *RISK of causing, or contributing to, foodborne illness based on the nature of the operation and extent of *FOOD preparation.” The exemption turns on the type of establishment and on the regulator’s judgment of it. Nothing in the section lets a store exempt itself, and nothing in it names a category of store. Whether your health department has deemed your type of operation minimal risk is a question to put to the department, and its answer belongs on the Person-in-Charge Card.

Put 2-101.11(A), the Chapter 1 definition and 2-102.12(A) side by side and our reading of the model text follows. A person in charge is present during all hours of operation. The person in charge is the individual present and responsible at the time of inspection. The person in charge is a certified food protection manager. A certificate in the owner’s name, kept in a drawer while an uncertified clerk runs the evening shift, meets the first sentence and not the third. The requirement attaches to whoever is in charge at the moment of inspection, so a store open sixteen hours a day with two shift leads has two people to certify, or one certified person whose hours cover every hour the store is open. Adopting jurisdictions may apply the requirement differently, so confirm how yours does.

What makes a certificate count

Section 2-102.20 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) ties the certificate to one accreditation path. Paragraph (A): “A *PERSON IN CHARGE who demonstrates knowledge by being a *FOOD protection manager that is certified by a *FOOD protection manager certification program that is evaluated and listed by a Conference for *FOOD Protection-recognized accrediting agency as conforming to the Conference for Food Protection Standard for Accreditation of Food Protection Manager Certification Programs is deemed to comply with ¶ 2-102.11(B).” Paragraph (B) says the same for the store: a food establishment with such a person in charge is deemed to comply with § 2-102.12.

Chapter 1 defines the accredited program in three parts. It “means a *FOOD protection manager certification program that has been evaluated and listed by an accrediting agency as conforming to national standards for organizations that certify individuals.” It refers to the certification process, “a designation based upon an independent evaluation” of the sponsor’s mission, structure, resources, policies, public information and test development. And it has a limit: the term “does not refer to training functions or educational programs.”

That limit separates two things a store often treats as one. Attending a food safety class is training. Passing a test that is part of a listed certification program is certification, and only the second satisfies 2-102.12(A). The Food Code names no provider, and neither does this article. Ask the certifying body whether its program is listed by a Conference for Food Protection-recognized accrediting agency, and keep its answer with the certificate.

The duties the person in charge must monitor

Holding the certificate is the entry condition. Section 2-103.11 of the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) sets out the job: “The *PERSON IN CHARGE shall maintain *ACTIVE MANAGERIAL CONTROL of foodborne illness *RISK factors by ensuring that:” and then lists eighteen paragraphs, (A) to (R). In the code’s order, the person in charge ensures that:

(A) operations “are not conducted in a private home or in a room used as living or sleeping quarters”;
(B) unnecessary persons “are not allowed in the *FOOD preparation, *FOOD storage, or *WAREWASHING areas”, with an exception for brief visits and tours the person in charge authorizes on conditions;
(C) employees and other persons entering those areas “comply with this Code”;
(D) employees “are effectively cleaning their hands”;
(E) employees “are visibly observing *FOODS as they are received”;
(F) employees are verifying that food delivered “during non-operating hours” is from approved sources and properly stored;
(G) employees “are properly cooking *TIME/TEMPERATURE CONTROL FOR SAFETY FOOD”;
(H) employees “are using proper methods to rapidly cool” that food;
(I) employees are maintaining its temperatures “during hot and cold holding”;
(J) food employees are maintaining its temperature “during thawing”;
(K) consumers who order raw or partially cooked ready-to-eat foods of animal origin “are informed as specified under § 3-603.11”;
(L) employees “are properly *SANITIZING cleaned multiuse *EQUIPMENT and *UTENSILS before they are reused”;
(M) consumers “are notified that clean *TABLEWARE is to be used when they return to self-service areas”;
(N) employees “are preventing cross-contamination of *READY-TO-EAT FOOD with bare hands by properly using suitable *UTENSILS”, unless the regulatory authority has approved otherwise under ¶ 3-301.11(E);
(O) employees “are properly trained in *FOOD safety, including *FOOD allergy awareness, as it relates to their assigned duties.”;
(P) food employees and conditional employees “are informed in a verifiable manner of their responsibility to report” health information;
(Q) written procedures and plans, where the code specifies them, “are maintained and implemented as required.”;
(R) employees “are aware of *FOOD DEFENSE” and report suspicious activity to the person in charge.

Paragraph (R) came in by the same route: the 2024 Supplement to the 2022 Food Code added it, and the 2026 edition carries it forward, so it too is absent from the base 2022 edition. The 2026 summary of changes lists it as: “Amended § 2-103.11 to add a new ¶ 2-103.11(R) that addresses employee training on food defense.” Paragraph (O) is the one most stores underweight: the person in charge answers for the staff being properly trained in food safety and allergy awareness, which is a duty of the certified manager toward the uncertified staff rather than a second certificate for each clerk.

The Person-in-Charge Card: a one-page record

The Person-in-Charge Card is a single sheet, kept where the inspector will ask for it, that answers the questions in this article in the order they arise. Fill it in before the next inspection and update it when a shift lead changes.

Is the store a food establishment? Write “yes” or the exclusion you rely on, with the health department contact who confirmed it and the date.
Which Food Code edition has our jurisdiction adopted? Write the edition and the state or local code section, from the health department rather than from memory.
Has the regulatory authority deemed our type of operation minimal risk? Write “yes”, “no” or “not asked”, with the date and the name of the person who answered.
Who is the person in charge on each shift? List every shift in the week and a name against each. A blank against any open hour is a gap under 2-101.11(A).
Certificate for each named person. Program name, the accrediting agency that lists it, the date passed and the expiry date. Attach a copy.
The eighteen areas. Tick each of the 2-102.11(C) areas the named person has reviewed against your own operation.
The eighteen duties. Beside each 2-103.11 paragraph, write the record that shows it is monitored: the cooking log for (G), the cooling log for (H), the holding log for (I), the training record for (O), the employee health acknowledgement for (P), the written plans for (Q).
Last inspection. Date, the inspector’s name, any priority-item violation, and the demonstration route used that day.

The card does not replace the certificate, the logs or the plans. It is the index that tells the inspector where they are and tells the owner where the gaps are.

Where state law fits

Every rule in this article is a model code, and it binds a store only through the state or local code that adopted it. The adopting jurisdiction chooses the edition, and the 2026 provisions quoted here may read differently in a state that still works from a previous edition. The adopting jurisdiction also decides, through its regulatory authority, which types of establishment it deems minimal risk under 2-101.11(C) and 2-102.12(B), and it may set its own rules on who must hold which certificate. The FDA Food Code 2026 page describes the model as “offered for adoption by local, state, tribal, territorial, and federal governmental jurisdictions”, and the preface says the adoption list is self-reported.

The text quoted in this article from the FDA Food Code 2026 (PDF) is the model behind the local rule, not a substitute for reading the local rule. NRS’s guide to licensing and permits convenience store owners overlook covers the food service permit and food handler certification alongside the other approvals on its list, and the guide to building a foodservice program without a full kitchen notes that the rules vary by state and county. The variation starts with the edition and the exemptions described in this section. Your health department can tell you which edition it follows, whether your store’s type of operation is deemed minimal risk, and which certificates it accepts.

Where the POS fits, and where it does not

The point of sale has no part in Chapter 2 of the Food Code. It does not certify anyone, it is not the person in charge, and no section quoted in this article mentions it. The certificate is earned by a person passing a test, and the duties in 2-103.11 are carried out by that person watching the floor.

Where the POS helps is the record around the person. NRS’s guide to launching a hot food and grab-and-go program treats food safety training and permits as part of the same program as the equipment and the register, and NRS’s guide to training employees on the POS makes a point that applies to the Person-in-Charge Card as well: keep the plan “somewhere every trainer can find it”, so that it outlives the one manager who wrote it. The card, the certificates and the logs belong in the same place as the POS training sheet, in the back office, found in under a minute when the inspector asks.

Frequently asked questions

Is the FDA Food Code the law in my state?

Only where your state or local government has adopted it. The preface states: “The model Food Code is neither federal law nor federal regulation and is not preemptive.” Ask your health department which edition it follows.

My store sells only packaged snacks, drinks and sealed sandwiches. Do I need a certified manager?

Under the model code, the definition of a food establishment excludes “An establishment that offers only pre-*PACKAGED *FOODS that are not *TIME/TEMPERATURE CONTROL FOR SAFETY FOODS”. Both conditions must hold. In our reading, a refrigerated sandwich with meat, egg or cheese will usually be a TCS food, which would put the exclusion out of reach, so confirm with your health department before relying on the exclusion.

Does the owner’s certificate cover every shift?

Under 2-102.12(A), the person in charge shall be a certified food protection manager, and the person in charge is “the individual present at a *FOOD ESTABLISHMENT who is responsible for the operation at the time of inspection.” An owner who is not present during a shift is not the person in charge for that shift.

Is a food safety class the same as certification?

Under the model code, no. An accredited program “does not refer to training functions or educational programs.” Certification means passing a test that is part of an accredited program.

If my store has no priority-item violations at inspection, does it still need a certificate?

Under 2-102.11 alone, a clean inspection is one of three ways to demonstrate knowledge. Section 2-102.12(A) then requires the person in charge to be a certified food protection manager, and the only exemption in that section is for types of establishment the regulatory authority deems minimal risk.

What will the inspector ask the person in charge?

Any of the eighteen areas in 2-102.11(C), “as they relate to the specific *FOOD operation”, from handwashing and cooking temperatures to allergens and, since the 2024 Supplement to the 2022 Food Code, food defense.

Key takeaways

The Food Code is a model, not federal law, and it binds your store only through the state or local code that adopted it. Confirm the edition with your health department.

A store that sells only sealed, shelf-stable food may not be a food establishment at all, under exclusion (a) of the definition, and both of that exclusion’s conditions must hold.

A person in charge must be present during all hours of operation, under 2-101.11(A) and subject to its paragraphs (B) and (C), and the owner may fill the role or name someone else.

The person in charge is whoever is present and responsible at the time of inspection, so, on our reading of the model text, the requirement follows the shift rather than the owner’s name.

Under 2-102.12(A) the person in charge shall be a certified food protection manager, where the provision is adopted.

The only exemption in 2-102.12 belongs to the regulator: types of establishment the regulatory authority deems minimal risk. A store cannot deem itself minimal risk.

A certificate counts when the program is listed by a Conference for Food Protection-recognized accrediting agency under 2-102.20, and an accredited program “does not refer to training functions or educational programs.”

The inspector may ask about eighteen areas of knowledge, listed in 2-102.11(C), and the eighteenth, food defense, was added by the 2024 Supplement to the 2022 Food Code and is absent from the base 2022 edition.

The certified person then has eighteen monitoring duties under 2-103.11, including the duty that employees are properly trained in food safety and allergy awareness.

Fill in the Person-in-Charge Card before the next inspection, with a name against every open hour and a certificate behind every name.