If you’ve ever asked yourself, “When should I retrain my food handlers?” — you’re not alone.
It’s one of the most common questions I hear from Food Safety Managers, especially in small and medium-sized food businesses juggling compliance, production targets, and limited resources.
The short answer?
👉 Food handler training is not a once-off event — it’s an ongoing process.
The longer answer depends on which food safety standard you follow and the risks in your operation.
Let’s unpack what South African regulations and key international standards and codes of practice — including GFSI 2024, ISO 22000, BRCGS Issue 9, Codex Alimentarius, and SANS 10049 — require.
What South African Food Hygiene Regulations Say About Food Handler Training
Regulation R638 of 2018
Regulations Governing General Hygiene Requirements for Food Premises, the Transport of Food and Related Matters
Regulation 10(1):
“A manager of a food premises must ensure that every food handler working on the premises is adequately trained or instructed in food hygiene by a person who is qualified to provide such training.”
Regulation 10(2) adds that the training must enable handlers to work hygienically and comply with the regulation.
R638 doesn’t specify an exact frequency, but it requires training to be ongoing and appropriate to the work performed.
In practice, Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) and auditors interpret this as:
💡 Tip: Annual refresher training is regarded as best practice in South Africa, particularly for food manufacturers and suppliers to retail or export markets.
🌍 What International Food Safety Standards Require
The following global frameworks all recognise that training and competence are pillars of food safety culture and must be maintained and verified regularly.
📘 Summary Table: Food Handler Training Requirements (Updated 2025)
| Standard / Scheme | What It Says About Training | Clause Reference |
| GFSI Benchmarking Requirements (v2024) | sites must maintain systems ensuring competence, awareness, and continual improvement. Training must be appropriate to the role and risk, and effectiveness verified. Food safety culture requires ongoing education and communication. | Part III — GMP 7
“Procedure shall be established, implemented and maintained to ensure that all employees, including temporary workers and subcontractors, are trained, and retrained as necessary to have an understanding in food safety, commensurate with their activity |
| ISO 22000:2018 (Food Safety Management Systems) | Personnel must be competent on the basis of education, training, or experience to ensure the performance and effectiveness of the FSMS. Where competence is lacking, ensure that the necessary action is taken to acquire the competence required training/mentoring and to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. Maintain records of training and assessment as evidence | Clause 7.2 – Competence
“The organisation shall: a) determine the necessary competence of person(s), including external providers, doing work under its control that affects its food safety performance and effectiveness of the FSMS; b)where applicable, take actions to acquire the necessary competence, and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken; e) retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence”
|
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 (2022) | Personnel affecting product safety, legality, and quality must be appropriately trained; effectiveness reviewed and records maintained. | Clause 7.1.1 “All personnel, including agency-supplied staff, temporary staff and contractors, shall be appropriately trained prior to commencing work and adequately supervised throughout the working period. “
Clauses 7.1.37.1.3 “The site shall put in place documented programmes covering the training needs of personnel. These shall include, at a minimum: • identifying the necessary competencies for specific roles • providing training or other action to ensure staff have the necessary competencies • reviewing the effectiveness of training • delivery of training in the appropriate language for trainees”– Training and effectiveness” |
| Codex Alimentarius – General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969 Rev. 2020) | Food handlers must receive supervision, instruction, and/or training appropriate to their tasks, repeated periodically and whenever necessary. | Clause 10 – Training
All those engaged in food operations who come directly or indirectly into contact with food should have a sufficient understanding of food hygiene to ensure they have competence appropriate to the operations they are to perform. Periodic assessments of the effectiveness of training and instruction programmes should be made as well as routine supervision and verification to ensure that procedures are being carried out effectively |
🧩 Making Sense of It All
So, what does this mean for your operation?
If you handle ready-to-eat foods, high-risk ingredients, or supply to retailers and export markets, annual refresher training is the minimum best practice.
If your operation regularly changes products, processes, or suppliers, implement targeted refresher sessions whenever those changes occur.
Think of it like this, provide annual Basic Food Safety training for all food handlers as a standard practice and:
🎯 Train when people change, when products change, or when problems happen.
Examples:
🧠 Training That Works (Not Just “Tick-the-Box”)
Food safety training must translate into visible, measurable behaviour on the floor.
Effective training means:
Auditors under GFSI 2024, ISO 22000, and BRCGS Issue 9 now assess both training records and evidence of learning effectiveness — a key shift aligned with food safety culture principles.
📋 Quick-Reference Guide: When to Retrain Food Handlers
| Situation | Recommended Action |
| New employee joins | Induction before handling food |
| Annual refresher | Once every 12 months |
| Process or product changes | Immediately before implementation |
| New regulation or retailer requirement | As soon as possible |
| After non-conformance, audit finding, or incident | Targeted retraining |
Final Thoughts
In South Africa’s dynamic food industry, well-trained staff are your strongest line of defence against contamination and non-compliance.
While R638 and SANS 10049 require periodic training “as necessary,” and GFSI 2024 reinforces the need for ongoing competence, the consensus across all standards is clear:
✅ Initial induction training on hiring
✅ Refresher training at least once every 12 months
✅ Additional training when changes, risks, or incidents arise
Consistent, documented, and effective training not only keeps you compliant but builds the food safety culture that auditors, retailers, and consumers now expect.
Train regularly. Verify effectiveness. Review annually.
That’s the formula for staying compliant — and staying safe.
How can Entecom help you?
For in-house customised Basic Food Safety Training presented in English, Afrikaans or IsiXhosa that will add value and focus on company-specific requirements, please contact us at info@entecom.co.za
We also have a wide range of printed Basic Food Safety Booklets as well as a various Editable Basic Food Safety Training Toolkits designed for your convenience.
Please browse our online Shop to explore the many options available