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Food safety training for Irish food handlers, free.

Six short lessons and a 20-question test, built on the Level 1 skills in the FSAI Guide to Food Safety Skills. Free, on your phone, no sign-up. Pass, and download your PDF certificate with a QR check for €19.00 (incl. VAT): you pay only after you pass.

Start lesson 1 Take the free test
  • Pay only if you pass
  • Unlimited retakes
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Try a question from the test

Lesson 2 · Personal hygiene, handwashing and illness

You had vomiting and diarrhoea. When can you go back to working near food?

Show the answer

Correct: D, When you have been free of symptoms for at least 48 hours. Stay away from food until you have been free of vomiting or diarrhoea for at least 48 hours: you can still carry bacteria. [S3] [S6] Read the section

All 21 Level 1 skills, mapped to six lessons.

The FSAI guide lists what a food handler should be able to do before starting and within the first month. Here is where each skill is taught. Finish a lesson and its skills tick off. Your employer still checks them at work.

Stage 1: before you handle food (9 skills)

What a new starter needs on day one.

  1. Maintain a high standard of personal hygieneLesson 2
  2. Wear and maintain protective clothing hygienicallyLesson 2
  3. Maintain a high standard of handwashingLesson 2
  4. Demonstrate correct hygiene practice if suffering from any disease or illnesses that may affect food safetyLesson 2
  5. Avoid unhygienic practices in a food operationLesson 2
  6. Demonstrate safe food handling practice (including allergens)Lesson 3 Lesson 5
  7. Maintain staff facilities in a hygienic conditionLesson 2
  8. Obey food safety signsLesson 2
  9. Keep work area cleanLesson 6

Stage 2: within your first month (12 skills)

What you need once you are working.

  1. Demonstrate their legal responsibility in ensuring safe food for the consumerLesson 1
  2. Recognise how food can be made unsafe by biological, chemical, physical or food allergen hazardsLesson 3 Lesson 5
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of cross-contamination and the hygiene practice necessary to prevent itLesson 3
  4. Explain the difference between high and low-risk activitiesLesson 3
  5. Avoid unnecessary handling of food, food utensils, equipment and surfacesLesson 3
  6. Record the temperature of foods and food storage equipment e.g. fridges, chills, freezers, display units, as requiredLesson 4
  7. Keep appropriate food safety recordsLesson 4
  8. Keep pests out of the food operationLesson 6
  9. Operate a satisfactory waste disposal systemLesson 6
  10. Take action when aware of unhygienic practices that may put the safety of food at riskLesson 1
  11. Co-operate with inspectors/auditorsLesson 1
  12. Check deliveries appropriatelyLesson 6

Skill names in the FSAI guide's own words [S3]. Not covered here: Level 2 (later skills) and Level 3 (managers).

Six lessons, about 16 minutes.

Every section answers a question from the job and ends with the points to remember. Then the test: 20 random questions, pass mark 15.

  1. The law, your job and the inspectorWho must train you, what FSAI Levels 1, 2 and 3 mean, and what an inspector actually checks. 3 min
  2. Personal hygiene, handwashing and illnessWhat to wear, when and how to wash your hands, and what to do when you are sick. 3 min
  3. Hazards and cross-contaminationThe four ways food becomes unsafe, how hazards spread, and which foods need the most care. 2 min
  4. Temperatures, records and HACCPThe key temperatures, cooling and reheating, using a probe, and where your records fit in HACCP. 3 min
  5. AllergensThe 14 allergens, what Irish customers must be told in writing, and how to stop allergen cross-contact. 2 min
  6. Cleaning, pests, waste and deliveriesThe six stages of cleaning, keeping pests out, handling waste, and what to check when a delivery arrives. 3 min

Inside: 6 lessons, 25 sections, 60 original questions with explanations and 90 facts with their source.

Your certificate, as soon as you pass.

Type your name, pay and download it straight away: the certificate plus a training record your employer can file.

Sample
Aptia SkillsNo. SAMPLE

Certificate of training

Food safety for food handlers in Ireland: Level 1 knowledge

This certifies that

Sample Name Example

completed the 6-lesson online course from Aptia Skills and passed its final test with 18 of 20 correct (pass mark 15).

Sector
Food service (restaurants, cafés, pubs, takeaways)
Study time
31 min
  1. The law, your job and the inspector
  2. Personal hygiene, handwashing and illness
  3. Hazards and cross-contamination
  4. Temperatures, records and HACCP
  5. Allergens
  6. Cleaning, pests, waste and deliveries

Food hygiene training for food handlers. Covers the knowledge behind the Level 1 (Stage 1 and Stage 2) skills in the FSAI Guide to Food Safety Skills (2025). The duty to supervise and instruct and/or train food handlers: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter XII.

Date issued
31 October 2026
Issued and signed by
Aptia Skills · Opus Vault
Scan to check it
Page 1 of 2, with sample details.

What your certificate includes

  • A4 PDF certificate with a unique number. Download it straight away, to print or send.
  • Training record for your employer. Page 2 maps the 6 lessons to the Level 1 skills in the FSAI guide, with the laws each lesson covers.
  • Your score, study time and sector. Taken from your own session, never invented.
  • QR code to check it. An employer can confirm in seconds that it is genuine and still valid.
  • Purchase receipt. With the price and the two boxes you ticked before paying.

€19.00incl. VAT · one payment

You pay only once you have passed. By card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. No account, no subscription. If we get something wrong, we fix it or refund you.

Take the test and get it

Training a team? Coming soon: one link per employee and one invoice. Email [email protected].

The rules in plain English.

We are a private training provider, not a public body. Tap an answer to see its source.

All sources and how we build the course

Is there a legal food safety certificate in Ireland?No. The law says food handlers must be supervised and instructed and/or trained for their work, and the FSAI says a course is not necessarily required.
  • EU Regulation 852/2004 (Annex II, Chapter XII) says food businesses must make sure food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene, in line with their work. [S8]
  • The FSAI says food handlers must be supervised, and also instructed and/or trained in food hygiene, based on the level of activity they are involved in. [S1]
  • The FSAI says you do not necessarily have to attend a food safety training course to meet the legal training requirement. [S1]
  • In Ireland, a food business operator that fails to meet the general hygiene requirements in Annex II of Regulation 852/2004 is guilty of an offence (S.I. No. 369 of 2006). [S9]
Who decides whether this training is enough?Your employer. The business is responsible for food safety, and it checks your skills at work.
  • Legally, the primary responsibility for food safety lies with the food business operator. [S3]
  • The FSAI guide expects training to be assessed at work, for example with its competency checklists. [S3]
  • For online learning, the FSAI says management support and follow-up are vital. [S1]
  • Food safety training should happen before an employee handles food, and keep going after that. [S3]
What does an inspector look at?How you work, what you know and the training records. They will not necessarily want a certificate from a particular course.
  • Inspectors may watch how food is handled, check staff knowledge, and ask for training records or training certificates. [S3]
  • The FSAI says an enforcement officer will not necessarily want to see a certificate from a particular training course. [S2]
  • Typically, the HSE inspects businesses like restaurants, delis, retailers, mobile food businesses and food stalls. [S14]
Is there free official material?Yes. The FSAI does not run courses, but it publishes a free guide and eLearning. It recommends face-to-face training.
  • The FSAI gives advice on training but does not run food hygiene or HACCP courses itself. [S1]
  • The FSAI publishes eLearning modules and other training materials on its Learning Portal. [S1]
  • The FSAI recommends a face-to-face approach to training. [S3]
Does this course teach HACCP?Only what a food handler needs to know about it. Whoever runs the HACCP plan needs separate HACCP training.
  • Under the same chapter, the people who develop and maintain a business's HACCP-based procedure must have adequate training in the HACCP principles. [S8]
  • In simple terms, HACCP means identifying what could go wrong in a food system and planning how to prevent it. [S13]
  • Since 1998, every food business in Ireland has had to have a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP. [S13]

Know where you work? Start here.

Short guides with the numbers and rules for each kind of workplace.

Start free Certificate €19.00 · only if you pass