The Food Handler Course is designed for food handlers, their supervisors, and their managers.  This course will teach you what causes food-borne illness, how it affects people, and how it can be prevented.

The course is designed to improve your skills in preparing safe food product, and recognizing potential hazards. It will also help you to satisfy the standards of the Ministry of Health for Food Handler Training throughout the province of Ontario.

The Food Handler Course will provide you with an understanding of the following areas:

- The role of microorganisms in food-borne illness.

- Prevention of food-borne illness.

- Implementing a food safety management system, following the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) including:

 - Proper control of food temperature.

- Safe food handling and storage.

- The need for good personal hygiene.

- Handling the concerns of customers with food allergies.

- General sanitation and maintenance of food premises, and compliance with Ontario Food Premise Regulation 562(90).

Health Canada estimates that every year 11 to 13 million Canadians suffer from food-borne illnesses caused by unsafe food handling practices.

Can you afford to lose customers, your reputation, or your business as the result of a food-borne illness?

Unsafe food handling practices can result in:

• Negative publicity.
• Legal fees.
• Increased insurance costs.
• Professional embarassment.

By hiring certified food handlers, you ensure that your staff are trained in how to handle food safely.

The online Food Handler Course is designed for those who can't attend the in class course. If your schedule makes it hard for you to attend an all day course, or if you prefer the convenience of taking the course at your own pace and on your own schedule, the online course will let you do that.

In order to take the online course, you'll need a few programs installed on your computer. If you're using a company computer, check with your system administrator if you have any questions about the following items.

1. Adobe Reader.

In order to view the resources that are included with this course, you'll need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. If you don't already have it, you can get it for free from:

http://get.adobe.com/reader/?promoid=BUIGO

2. Flash Player.

This is an interactive course. To use the interactive elements, you will need Adobe's Flash Player. It's also free, and you can get it here:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=BUIGP

3. Cookies.

For all of the elements of this course to work for you, you'll need to have cookies enabled in your browser. Here's how:

Internet Explorer:

1. Go to the Tools menu.
2. Select Internet Options.
3. Select the Privacy tab.
4. Select the Default button (or manually slide the bar down to 'Medium').
5. Select the OK button.

4. Internet Explorer version 7 or higher, or Firefox version 3 or higher. 

There are parts of this course that you will not be able to use if you are using an older browser or a different browser version.  To find out which version of your Internet browser you have, go to the "About" section of your Help menu.

If you don't have access to these four things - Adobe Reader, Flash Player, cookies enabled in your browser, and an updated browser version - the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit recommends that you take the in-class version of this course. You can get more information about the in-class course at:

http://www.wechealthunit.org/inspect/food-safety-1/food-safety-1

The online course is designed to prepare you for the Food Handler Certification exam, which takes place at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. Once you have completed the course and are ready to schedule your exam, contact the Health Unit at 519-258-2146 ext. 1450 or 1474.

For more information you can go to:

http://www.wechealthunit.org/inspect/food-safety-1/food-safety-1