FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

We often get asked questions such as “We are having a Church Picnic, do we need a Food Handlers Certificate ? We are pleased that you ask such questions, however, you really need to ask the Department of Heath’s opinion on this. Contact the Manitoba Health Protection Unit at healthprotection@gov.mb.ca or 204-945-4204.

Just like the grocery store, if you are given a coupon from FoodSafe Manitoba, it can be redeemed when you register for your online course and exam.
Generally there will be an expiry date, either a percentage or dollar amount off the regular price and a limit (the first 20 people) on a coupon.
The Coupon name is entered during the Registration/Enrolment process. Since we are already offering our course and exam at such a low price, we seldom issue coupons.

Please note … A coupon is completely different than a Voucher. Please also read the FAQ item on Vouchers to understand the difference.

Vouchers are generally purchased by employers or group leaders so that they can receive an invoice for business purposes and to pre-pay for our online courses and exams on behalf of their employees or members. This prevents the students from having to pay for their courses, then get reimbursed and it allows the employer to assign their voucher-codes to specific employees. Since a voucher and unused voucher-codes do not expire, they can buy now and avoid any future cost increases.

The employer will be responsible for issuing voucher-codes to their staff. When the employee registers with FoodSafe Manitoba, they can enter their voucher-code during the registration process (or if they forget, it can be done later in My Dashboard). Once the voucher-code has been entered, it will automatically enrol the student into the course specified and skip the payment process.

Please note, the voucher-code IS NOT your userid. Some people have been confused and call us saying that they cannot signon. We use the email address that you provide during the Registration process as your userid ALWAYS. The voucher-code is merely “proof of payment” that is entered during the Registration process. The voucher-code can be entered later in the Student Dashboard once you have Registered by clicking Redeem a Voucher.

Please note … Coupons are very different than Vouchers. See What is a Coupon ? in this FAQ to understand the difference.

A good question and perhaps a surprising answer. We have received this question a lot lately.

FoodSafe Manitoba does its best to be a multi-lingual site. We began this during the In-Person courses only days with providing text books in as many languages as is available. Now that we have been servicing the online course and exams track as well. We are able to reach more remote students, whom would otherwise not have access to Food Handling and Safety Courses and the Certification Exam.

In this same light, we have recently added many new cultures of people fleeing tyranny in the home country. This has made Canada a richer nation and have introduced many new foods and restaurants. Quite often to gain employment, they first require up-to-date Food Handling Certificates. Their English skills are still developing and they feel more at home learning in their native tongue. That is why we have made our courses and web interface multi-lingual as well.

So to make a long story short, I would love to add audio, sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures. However, I only know English and have intermediate Spanish. It would not be fair to miss the potential languages verbally. Hopefully one day. It seemed best to use motions instead of audio to get the message across.

FOODSAFE Level 1. A food handling, sanitation and work safety course designed for food service establishment operators and front line food service workers such as cooks, servers, bussers, dishwashers, and deli workers.

FoodSafe Manitoba offers a Manitoba Government Department of Health, Seniors and Active Living certified Food Handling and Safety course both online and in-person.

Most of our in-person classes are offered through the various school divisions’ continuing education divisions. These have been on-hold for some time due to the Pandemic. However, we are currently being asked to once again offer these as the various school divisions open up once again this fall.

Our online course has been available for some time now. The tuition covers both four weeks of access to the online course and the online exam for $49.99. Upon successful completion of the course and exam, you will receive a digital FoodSafe Manitoba Health Food Handler Training Certificate, good for five years. Payment for this is done through the enrollment process via PayPal or a major credit card.

You will want to review the registration and enrollment process video by clicking the link “Getting Started” on our homepage https://FoodSafeManitoba.CA.

When you have completed the course, let us know through our Contact Us page, and we will schedule an exam session. The exam takes a maximum of one hour and you must achieve a passing grade of 70% in order to receive your certificate. A link will be sent to you telling you how to retrieve your certificate in digital format (pdf). Before you write your exam, please review our “Starting Exam Video” at the bottom of the page under Resources.

If you have any further questions, please review our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). If you still need assistance, send us a message using our Contact Us page.

The Getting Started guide will guide you through the process of Registration and Online Course enrollment.
Click Getting Started, to watch the video.

A FoodSafe Manitoba account will allow you to purchase reserved spots in In-Person Classes, register for Certification Exams, and Online Courses. However, in some venues such as School Divisions, we will not be able to offer this, as they require us to have students register using their systems. We apologize for this, but it is beyond our control. Our hope is that we will be able to interface with these Venues at some point in the future.

The food handlers certificate is most commonly required for cooks, but can also be required for servers, cashiers, bartenders, and anyone else that will be handling food.

In this day and age, you certainly do need an email account so that others can communicate with you, including FoodSafe Manitoba. There are a number of free email services available to you, we do recommend Google Mail or GMail as it is commonly known. Click here to watch a short video that will show you how to create a Google Account. From there, it will show you how to use Gmail.

Yes, your Food Handlers Certificate will expire 5 years after the date the Province of Manitoba Food Handler Exam was successfully completed and the certificate issued.

At present, we will accept payments from PayPal, as well as credit cards: Visa, Master Card, and Discover. All payments are done securely using Sectico Limited. To verify this, click on the lock image on the top left of the screen. It should say Site Information for FoodSafeManitoba.ca | Connection Secure. It is always a good idea to do this check on any website where you store personal information and before you make payments.

This often comes up for different organizations. At FoodSafe Manitoba, we can sell you Vouchers for a specific number of students. They will all use the same voucher code assigned to them by you. When the limit has been reached, no further voucher codes can be used. When each student registers and enters the voucher code on the Registration page, they will also be automatically enrolled in the online course. They need to just click “Have a voucher?” and it will provide a spot to enter the voucher code. If required we can also invoice you for payment. This is often required by companies for their purchasing process.
You will not be issued your Voucher Code(s) until we receive payment in full. Please note, it is important to pay the PayPal invoice using the same mail address to whom the invoice is addressed, otherwise they payment will no be accepted.

The purchase of a set of voucher codes needs to be discussed directly with Contact US to arrange payment.

 

You will be awarded the certificate if you pass the exam. The passing grade is 70%.

FoodSafe is taught in English and French, but there are other-language Student Workbooks available for purchase or use. FoodSafe has exams in other languages. They are organized with each question in English question/answers first, then the other language second. This makes it easier for the student to use their language then compare it with the English version. If there is not an exam in your language, FoodSafe Manitoba also assists by doing oral exams. Other language exams include: Korean English French Punjabi FoodSafe also needs qualified Translators for the following: Ukrainian Polish Arabic Portuguese Hungarian Italian Vietnamese Japanese Portuguese If you have any of the above languages, and good knowledge of English, and, you are able to translate any language, please call FoodSafe Manitoba. People from all around the world settling here need help to find employment in the food industry. They need your help!

Also, note that our website provides for several language translations using Google Translate. See the page footer under Language.

Our online exam service partner SpeedExam only supports the following languages at this time:
Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Thai.
The Language can be set on the login screen just below the white box on the left.

 

In order to take the online exam through SpeedExam, you require a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android Phone or Tablet or a Chromebook.

• It must have a webcam so that we can proctor your exam and authorize that your government issued photo id is valid.
  When you take the exam, the software will scan your device to ensure that it is compatible.
• Supported Operating Systems – Windows XP, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 & 11| Mac OS 8 & above. | Android 4.1 & above. | iOS 6 & above.

• Supported Web Browsers – Edge, Internet Explorer (limited)  | Mozilla Firefox 24 & above.
  | Google Chrome 18 & above.|Apple Safari 5 & above. | Opera 20 & above.

• Minimum Screen Resolutions – For PC & Mac 1024 X 768 & above | For tablets & mobile devices 470 X 320 & above.

The Manitoba Government requires us to “proctor” or monitor the exam and also requires us to visually validate your government issued photo id when taking the online exam. If you do not have a webcam, then you will need to take the exam either in-person or verbally over the telephone. Please use Contact Us to make arrangements with one of our instructors.

No you don’t need to have anything else except a webcam and a web browser. See FAQ: What do I require to take the Online Exam?.

There is an app from SpeedExam called “SpeedExam” in the Google Play Store for Android devices. However, it really does not do that much more than the the web browser.

An interpreter is allowed to attend the course with you to interpret the exam, but not allowed to lead the participant to “give” the correct answer. Any breach in protocol and the interpreter will be relieved. The interpreter does not write the exam for themselves.

Visually challenged students may request Oral exams by an instructor or FoodSafe Manager are offered at any time. Our online course allows for screen readers, font control, colour blindness, reversed image, greyscale, dislexia, etc.

Students with hearing loss can have an interpreter attend the course with you to interpret the exam, but not allowed to lead the participant to “give” the correct answer. Any breach in protocol and the interpreter will be relieved. The interpreter does not write the exam for themselves. Signing, for the deaf: Signers are allowed to act as the interpreter and sign for the participant following the Instructors information. Oral exams by an instructor or FoodSafe Manager are offered at any time. You should consider enrolling in our online course.

In addition, exams can be conducted using Google Meet, which has a reasonable voice to text captioning. The video component can also be used for lip reading.

 

When you go to the Register – Sign-On page to enter the system, you will notice a link on the right-hand side in red saying “Lost your password ?”

Click this link and you will go to a page where you can set a new password for your account. There are several steps to this procedure for security reasons.

1. Click “Lost your password ?” on the Sign-On form.
2. You will go to My Dashboard Lost Password page. You will see the sentence “Lost your password ? Enter your email address and we will send you a link to reset it.”
3. Enter your EMail Address in the box labeled “* EMail Address” and click the “Reset Password” button.
4. An email will be sent to your email address with a new password and a link “User Account” For example:
   Subject: Password Reset for FoodSafe Manitoba
   Someone recently requested that the password be reset for Your_Email@Provider.com.
   To reset your password, click on the button below: Reset Password
5. Once you have successfully signed-on, you can go to the “My Dashboard” page, find and click “Edit Account“.
6. You can now scroll down the page and click on “Change Password” to change it to something you can more easily enter.
7. Don’t forget to click the “Save” button when you are finished making any changes.

Our website allows you to enter your email address and password three (3) times incorrectly before it locks you out. At that point, any further attempts to sign in from your internet address will be blocked for 10 minutes. You can wait and try again after that time. This is an industry-standard technique to prevent unauthorized access to our website.

If you leave the Certification Exam before you have completed it, the exam will be terminated and will score only those questions for which you have provided an answer. All unanswered questions will be graded as wrong. You may want to review our Course Delivery page for more answers. Please note that this policy is in effect regardless of whether you are writing the Certification Exam online or in-person.

We suggest that you first contact the Province of Manitoba at 204-945-3705 to help locate your certificate and the company that issued it.

A charge of $15 will be required before we do the search. If it is successful, we will then charge an additional $20 for it to be reissued in digital format (PDF). You will be invoiced for each service, so FoodSafe Manitoba will need your name, email address and telephone number before we can start the process. The request can be entered through the Contact US page.

You may want to consider enrolling in our online course in order to re-certify since your certificate is likely older and expires 5 years after it was issued.

Anyone starting a new food business, large or small e.g. hot-dog cart, small specialty restaurant, or just providing or delivering food, must have a valid Food Handler Certificate. See By-Law Necessary equipment may be purchased in Winnipeg. Check the City of Winnipeg By-Law for minimum requirements. There are restaurant supply retailers to purchase your thermometers, test strips (for checking sanitizer levels), and pots, cooking utensils, etc. Check your yellow pages for food equipment supplies. Starting a new food business? Supplies for a new business

Preparing and serving food from a home-based business for public consumption is prohibited. Province of Manitoba Statement