What is ServSafe?

• A. A course that teaches how to keep food safe.
• B. A restaurant inspection program.
• C. A food storage standard.
• D. A HACCP record-keeping system.

Answer: (A)

ServSafe is a training and certification program created by the National Restaurant Association to teach and validate food safety knowledge. It provides courses on proper cooking temperatures, preventing cross-contamination, safe handling, personal hygiene, cleaning and sanitizing, and time/temperature control, so staff and managers can demonstrate competency in keeping food safe. It isn’t an inspection program—that role belongs to local health authorities. It isn’t a storage standard, which would be a set of rules for how foods are stored. And it isn’t a HACCP record-keeping system; HACCP is a broader, systematic approach to identifying and controlling hazards, while ServSafe focuses on education and certification.