
The Big Six, the Symptoms That Send Staff Home, and the 20-Second Rule
Food Safety Exam Prep — Every Exam PrepShow Notes
Foodborne illness on the ServSafe Manager and CFPM exams: the six highly infective pathogens the FDA Food Code names, the symptoms that exclude an employee from working with food, the seven-day jaundice rule, the 20-second handwashing standard, and the ban on bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food.
More from Food Safety Exam Prep — Every Exam Prep
A spoken cheat sheet for the ServSafe Manager, CFPM, Food Handler and Alcohol exams: the exam formats and pass marks, the temperature danger zone, holding, receiving, cooking, reheating and cooling figures, the four-hour and time-control rules, date marking, handwashing, exclusion, sanitizer concentrations, the nine allergens, the Big Six pathogens, and the alcohol service rules — every figure from the issuer or the FDA Food Code.
The four food-service credentials compared on the numbers their issuers publish: the 90-question ServSafe Manager with 80 scored and five-year validity, the 40-question non-proctored Food Handler at 75% for three years, the ServSafe Alcohol Primary and Advanced exams, and the CFPM standard that any of five accredited providers can issue — and the Food Code rule that decides who in a kitchen must hold which.
ServSafe Alcohol from the National Restaurant Association's rules: the 40-question Primary exam passed at 75% with 30 correct and no proctor, the 70-question proctored Advanced exam passed at 80% with 56 correct, the 90-day course window, the 39 states plus DC that accept the online course, Maryland's Advanced-only rule, the instructor-led states, three-year recognition, Texas TABC's two-year certificate, and the service rules the questions test.
The ServSafe Food Handler assessment from the National Restaurant Association's rules: a 40-question non-proctored test with a 75% pass mark, no prerequisite, a certificate recognized for three years, vouchers and online courses that expire one year from purchase, the Pearson VUE option for proctored exams, and how it differs from the Manager certification.
The credential behind the exam: what a certified food protection manager is under the FDA Food Code, why the person in charge must hold one, what ANAB accreditation under the Conference for Food Protection standard means, the five accredited testing organizations including ServSafe, the five-year validity, and the 2022 Food Code tenth edition as a model code.