Last verified: August 2026, against county health department sources and Maricopa County Environmental Health Code Chapter VII (rev. 08/19/2026).
| Required | Get it within | Valid for |
|---|---|---|
| Maricopa County: yes; other counties vary | 30 days from hire (Maricopa) | 3 years |
Law: ARS § 36-136; R9-8-107 · Authority: ADHS · Verified: August 2026
No statewide card, but Maricopa County (Phoenix) and some other counties require one. Find your county below.
Arizona has no statewide food handler card. Whether you need one depends entirely on the county you work in — and the answer is genuinely different in Phoenix than it is in Tucson. Nine Arizona jurisdictions require a card. Four require nothing at all. Below is the county-by-county map, the real costs, and the deadline that catches people out.
Quick answer
- Phoenix and everywhere else in Maricopa County: yes, you need a food handler card, within 30 days of doing any food employee work. Valid 3 years.
- Tucson and Pima County: no county card is required for workers. Your employer may still ask for one — that is an employer rule, not a county one.
- Cost: Maricopa County charges you nothing. An accredited online course runs about $7–$15. Some counties run their own card instead, from $8 to $20.
- Where to take it: any ANSI/ANAB-accredited provider. Maricopa County publishes a list of 24 of them.
- Age: no Arizona county sets a minimum age for the card.
- Navajo Nation: separate system, its own card, and the required training is free.
What it’s called: most Arizona counties say food handler card, but county health departments, employers and course sellers also use food handler permit, food handlers license and food handler certificate. Arizona has no statewide name because the requirement is set county by county — all of these point to the same local rule.
Which Arizona counties require a food handler card
This is the part most pages get wrong, usually by saying “most counties require one” and leaving it there. Here is the actual map.
| County | Main cities | Worker card required? |
|---|---|---|
| Maricopa | Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, Surprise | Yes — within 30 days |
| Pima | Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana | No |
| Pinal | Casa Grande, Apache Junction, City of Maricopa | Yes — within 30 days |
| Yavapai | Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sedona, Cottonwood | Yes — within 30 days |
| Mohave | Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Bullhead City | Yes — within 30 days |
| Yuma | Yuma, San Luis, Somerton | Yes — county test, or exempt with an accredited card |
| Coconino | Flagstaff, Page, Williams | Yes for events; county-wide rule not published |
| Santa Cruz | Nogales | Yes |
| Greenlee | Clifton, Duncan | Yes |
| La Paz | Parker, Quartzsite | Yes — and the county charges its own fee on top |
| Navajo County | Show Low, Winslow, Holbrook | No — recommended only |
| Graham | Safford, Thatcher | No |
| Apache | St. Johns, Eagar, Chinle | No |
| Gila | Globe, Payson | Unconfirmed — call (928) 402-8811 |
| Cochise | Sierra Vista, Douglas, Bisbee | Unconfirmed — call (520) 432-9400 |
| Navajo Nation | Window Rock, Chinle, Kayenta, Tuba City | Yes — tribal card, free training |
The four counties where you need nothing
Pima, Navajo County, Graham and Apache do not require food workers to hold a card. Navajo County says so outright: its environmental health department “does not currently register the certification or issue food handler cards,” and only recommends training. Graham County’s food page simply links workers out to the national accredited-provider directory. Apache County has no card, no test and no fee.
If you work in one of these four counties, you do not have to buy anything to be legal. Your employer can still require training as a condition of the job, and many chains do — but that is a company policy, and the county is not going to cite you for it.
Two counties we could not confirm
Gila County has a page titled “Food Service Worker Training” that search engines index but that returns an error to anyone who clicks it — so a programme almost certainly exists, but none of its details are published in a readable form right now. Cochise County is stranger: its posted sanitary code dates from 1994 and defines an annual “Food Sanitation Certificate,” while its 2023 and 2024 documents only suggest certification and its fee schedule lists no handler card fee at all. Call before you pay for anything in either county.
Phoenix and Maricopa County: the short version
Maricopa County covers Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria and Surprise — roughly six in ten Arizona residents. Every food employee needs a card within 30 days of doing any food work (before the event, for temporary and seasonal events). The card is valid 3 years. The county accepts a card from another Arizona county, a county-run course, or a certificate from an ANSI-accredited third-party course. It publishes a list of 24 such providers and does not sell its own course.
This ANAB-accredited Arizona course is one of the 24 the county names, costs $7, is self-paced, is available in Spanish, and prints your certificate as soon as you pass — which also satisfies Pinal, Yavapai, Mohave, Santa Cruz and Coconino, and exempts you from Yuma’s in-person test. In Pima, Graham, Apache and Navajo counties you are not required to have this at all.
Fee waivers, the $5 limited-use certificate, who counts as a food employee and the full list of accepted documents are in our Maricopa County food handler card guide.
Tucson and Pima County: you do not need a card
This is where most Arizona guides — including this page, until now — get it wrong.
Pima County Code Chapter 8.08 has ten sections and not one of them requires a worker food handler card. The only people-requirement is § 8.08.050, which says establishments must “employ at least one person in charge who is ANSI certified as a food protection manager.” That is a requirement on the business, not on you.
Pima County does offer its own food handler class, virtually or in person, for a $20 exam fee. Read the county’s own warning before you book it:
“This food handler certificate is not ANSI-accredited. It is intended for educational purposes only and may not meet regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions.”
So the Pima class is genuine food safety education, but it is not the accredited card, and it would not satisfy Maricopa County if you moved. If a Tucson employer requires a card as company policy, an accredited course is the one that travels.
What an Arizona food handler card actually costs
“About $10 online” is true in the counties that leave it to accredited providers. It is not true everywhere, because six counties run their own card and charge their own fee.
| County | County fee | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Maricopa | $0 | No county fee. You buy an accredited course (about $7–$15). $5 Limited Use certificate where it applies |
| Pinal | Not published | Accredited course or test |
| Greenlee | $8 | County’s online course, 3 years, English or Spanish |
| Yuma | $10 cash | 25-question true/false test in person, 3 attempts included |
| Yavapai | $15 | County card, 2-year term (an accredited online card runs 3 years) |
| La Paz | County fee applies | Charged even if you already hold an accredited certificate or another county’s card |
| Mohave | $20 | 2-hour in-person class, advance registration, cash or card |
| Coconino | $20 | County’s online course through its Environmental Health Portal |
| Pima, Graham, Apache, Navajo County | $0 | No card required |
| Navajo Nation | Free | IHS online training, then collect the Blue Card |
La Paz County is the one place where taking an online course does not save you money. Its instruction is to take an accredited course, then bring the certificate and the county fee to the health department office to be issued a card — and presenting a valid card from another Arizona county costs the same. Everywhere else, an accredited certificate is accepted as it is.
La Paz County’s own website could not be reached while this page was verified, and the figures circulating for it trace back to a fee schedule dated 2007. The stacked-fee structure is real; call (928) 669-1100 for the current amount.
How long your card lasts, by county
“Three years” is the common answer and it is right in Maricopa. It is wrong in three counties:
- Maricopa, Santa Cruz, Greenlee — 3 years from the date of issue.
- Yavapai county card — 2 years. An accredited online card bought instead runs the usual 3.
- Yuma — 1 year, according to the county’s study guide. That guide is dated 2017 and cites the 1999 Arizona Food Code, so confirm it before relying on it.
- Mohave — not published. The county states a 30-day deadline but no expiry.
There is no renewal exam that differs from the first one. When your card expires, you retake the course.
The two counties with ID rules
Most Arizona counties ask for nothing but a completed course. Two do.
Yavapai County requires documentation of legal residency before it will issue its own card — an Arizona driver’s licence, US passport, birth certificate, tribal identification, or USCIS employment authorisation document. The requirement dates from 2008.
Mohave County states that “US identification is required for the issuance of all permits and Food Handler Cards,” and you must bring photo ID and your registration receipt to the class.
The practical point: neither rule attaches to the accredited online route. Yavapai accepts an ANSI online certificate for employment compliance, and Mohave accepts a current ANSI-accredited card outright. If the county’s documentation list is a problem for you, the online course is a legitimate way around a county counter — not a loophole, just the other option the county already accepts.
Yuma County: the $10 test, or skip it entirely
Yuma runs the most old-fashioned system in the state and the cheapest county card. You walk in to the Environmental Health Division at 2200 West 28th Street, Suite 222, Monday to Friday between 8am and 4pm, pay $10 in cash — no cards, no cheques — and sit a 25-question true/false test. You may miss six. The fee covers three attempts, up to twice a day, within ten business days. Study guides are published in English and Spanish.
Or you skip all of it. Yuma’s own study guide says: “An individual that is certified under a testing provider that is American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved is exempt from the food handler card requirement as long as the certificate remains valid.” That is an exemption, not an alternative — an accredited online certificate means Yuma does not ask you for a card at all.
Flagstaff and Coconino County
Coconino County definitely requires a food handler card for anyone preparing food at a special event — its event requirements say proof must come with the permit application or no permit is issued. For ordinary restaurant work the picture is less clear: the county adopted a new Unified Health Code (Ordinance 2025-04) on 26 September 2025, and its food chapter does not publish a general worker mandate.
The county sells its own online course for $20 through its Environmental Health Portal — you upload ID, and the card appears digitally about two business days later; no certificate is emailed. Outside providers are allowed, with a warning worth reading twice: “if you take the Food Handler Certification course from another provider the onus of proof that the certification meets the requirements of ARS 11-269.12 is on you.”
Coconino also runs something no other Arizona county does: a Backcountry Certification covering vector, sanitation, food and water safety, for Grand Canyon and river-guide operations. If you are cooking on a river trip, that is the credential to ask about.
The City of Maricopa is not in Maricopa County
Worth its own heading, because it sends people to the wrong health department every week. The City of Maricopa is in Pinal County. If you work there, your rules come from Pinal County Public Health, not Maricopa County Environmental Services.
In practice Pinal’s headline rule is the same — “within 30 days of hire, all food employees must obtain food service worker certification by completing a food service worker sanitation course or test” — so an accredited course covers you either way. But if you are calling with a question, call the right county: Pinal County Public Health, (520) 509-3555.
The Navajo Nation has its own card, and the training is free
The Navajo Nation is not an Arizona county and Arizona’s county rules do not reach it. Its own code is explicit: under 13 N.N.C. § 84(E), “all employees, managers, and owners working in a food service establishment shall have a valid food handlers training certificate issued by the Health Advisor,” and § 332 repeats it for every employee including mobile and temporary establishments.
Because the certificate has to come from the Nation’s own Health Advisor, a standard Arizona county card is not the document the code asks for — and no reciprocity language exists in any Navajo Nation source. Here is the route instead:
- Take the free Indian Health Service online food handler training at ihs.gov/foodhandler — about an hour, 20 questions, 70% to pass.
- Contact the Navajo Office of Environmental Health & Protection to collect your Blue Food Handler’s Card. The Fort Defiance office schedules pickup on (928) 729-8440.
- Training also runs at the St. Michaels, Shiprock, Kayenta, Chinle and Red Lake chapter houses.
IHS is clear about the limits of its own certificate: it “shows you completed the training — it is not a food sales permit,” and “some Tribes or jurisdictions may accept it, but rules vary.” Do not pay for an online course for Navajo Nation work. The training you need is free and the card comes from the Nation.
What Arizona law actually says
You will see it written everywhere — including on one Arizona county’s own website — that state law requires every county to accept any ANAB-accredited certificate. That is not quite what the statute says, and the difference matters if you are in La Paz County.
A.R.S. § 11-269.12 does three useful things:
- Subsection A sets the course standard. “If a county requires food handler training and a certificate for employment in the food service industry, the food handler certificate training course must meet American society for testing and materials standard E2659-09.” It is a floor on the course content — it does not order counties to accept any given provider.
- Subsection B protects the online option. A course “may be offered by any means available, including as an online course,” and “a course proctor is not required.”
- Subsection E gives you portability. “A county-issued food handler certificate or identification card is valid in any county that requires a food handler certificate or identification card until the person’s certificate or identification card expires.”
Subsection F is worth knowing too: “a county may not limit the amount of times a person may attempt to complete a food handler certificate training course.”
Why an accredited online card works across Arizona anyway: not because the statute commands it, but because the counties say so themselves, in their own regulations. Maricopa’s Regulation 4.a.3 and Santa Cruz’s Health Code both accept a “third party food handler training course… including compliance with the American National Standards Institute/ASTM International Standard E2659-09” by name. Mohave lists an ANSI card and any Arizona county’s card as acceptable. Yavapai accepts ANSI online certificates for employment compliance. Yuma exempts ANSI holders outright.
That is a stronger guarantee than the statute alone, and it holds in every requiring county except La Paz — which charges its fee regardless.
How old do you have to be?
No Arizona county publishes a minimum age for a food handler card. Maricopa’s code defines a food employee by what the person does, not how old they are, and sets no age floor. A 15-year-old can take an accredited course and be issued a card.
The limits come from employment law instead. Under A.R.S. § 23-230, 14- and 15-year-olds may not do “work involving cooking and baking, including frying and broiling,” may not operate power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers or cutters, and may not prepare meats for sale. No food-service occupational restrictions are listed for 16- and 17-year-olds.
So a 15-year-old can hold a valid food handler card and still not be allowed near the fryer.
The manager requirement is separate
Distinct from your card, food establishments must have a Certified Food Protection Manager. In Maricopa County at least one must be on staff, a departing one must be replaced “within ninety (90) days of separation,” and the certification expires five years from the date of the test. Pima County requires an ANSI-certified food protection manager as the person in charge — which, in Tucson, is the only people-requirement there is.
That is an obligation on the business, not on you as a worker, and it is a different and more expensive qualification.
See Arizona Food Manager Certification for the full requirement, cost, and how to get certified.
How to get your card
- Check your county in the table above. In four counties you need nothing, and in two the answer is unresolved.
- If your county runs its own card and it is cheaper — Yuma at $10, Greenlee at $8 — that is the lower-cost route, if you can get to the office.
- Otherwise take an ANSI/ANAB-accredited course. Any provider on your county’s accepted list works; Maricopa publishes 24 of them. Expect $7–$15 and 60–90 minutes, self-paced.
- Pass the exam and print the certificate. Most providers issue it immediately.
- Give a copy to your employer — in Maricopa County they are required to keep it on file for inspections.
- Do it within 30 days of your first shift, or before the event starts if you are working a temporary stand.
Arizona at a glance
| Statewide requirement? | No — set county by county |
| Counties that require a card | Maricopa, Pinal, Yavapai, Mohave, Yuma, Coconino, Santa Cruz, Greenlee, La Paz |
| Counties that do not | Pima, Navajo, Graham, Apache |
| Phoenix | Required, within 30 days, valid 3 years |
| Tucson | Not required for workers |
| Deadline after hire | 30 days (before the event starts for temporary stands) |
| Typical cost | $7–$15 online; $0 county fee in Maricopa; $8–$20 where the county runs its own |
| Valid for | 3 years in most counties; 2 in Yavapai, 1 in Yuma |
| Minimum age | None published |
| Accepted training | ANSI/ANAB-accredited to ASTM E2659 |
| Cross-county validity | A county-issued card is valid in any requiring county (A.R.S. § 11-269.12(E)) |
| Navajo Nation | Own card from the Health Advisor; free IHS training |
Common questions
Do I need a food handler card in Phoenix?
Yes. Phoenix is in Maricopa County, which requires one within 30 days of doing any food employee work. It is valid three years and the county charges you nothing for it — you buy an accredited course, usually $7 to $15.
Do I need one in Tucson?
No. Pima County requires only that the establishment employ an ANSI-certified food protection manager as person in charge. There is no worker card requirement. Your employer may still ask for one.
For comparison, Kansas food handler card covers a state with a true statewide worker card requirement.
How much does an Arizona food handler card cost?
An accredited online course runs about $7 to $15 and there is no additional county fee in Maricopa County. Counties that run their own card charge $8 (Greenlee), $10 (Yuma), $15 (Yavapai) or $20 (Mohave and Coconino). In four counties it costs nothing because nothing is required.
How long does an Arizona food handler card last?
Three years in Maricopa, Santa Cruz and Greenlee counties. Yavapai’s own card runs two years. Yuma’s is one year according to its study guide. Mohave does not publish an expiry.
Do servers need a food handler card?
In a requiring county, yes. Maricopa’s definition covers anyone who “handles, prepares, serves, sells or gives away food,” which plainly includes servers, bartenders and baristas. Yavapai spells out that it covers “virtually every employee in a restaurant or bar with the possible exception of hostesses and bookkeepers provided they never handle food or utensils.”
Do dishwashers need one?
Yes, where a card is required. Handling food-contact equipment counts — La Paz County names dish washing explicitly.
How old do you have to be to get a food handlers card?
No Arizona county sets a minimum age. Arizona employment law separately bars 14- and 15-year-olds from cooking, baking, operating power-driven slicers and preparing meats for sale.
Does my card work in another Arizona county?
Yes. A county-issued card is valid in any county that requires one until it expires, and Maricopa, Mohave and Santa Cruz all name other counties’ cards as acceptable documentation. The exception is La Paz County, which charges its own fee to issue you a card even when you present a valid one from elsewhere.
Is there an Arizona “health card”?
No. Arizona has no health-screening card for food workers — no vaccination, no TB test. The food handler card is a training certificate. The phrase belongs to Nevada, where Clark County calls its card a health card.
Can I renew online?
There is no separate renewal process. When your card expires you retake an accredited course and get a new one. Under A.R.S. § 11-269.12(F) a county cannot limit how many attempts you get.
Does Arizona also require a food manager certification?
Yes — but that’s a separate, facility-level certification. See our Arizona Food Manager Certification page for the details.
Official sources
- Maricopa County — Food & Restaurants
- Maricopa County — ANSI-Accredited Providers (all 24)
- Maricopa County Environmental Health Code, Chapter VII (PDF)
- Pima County — Food & Pool Certification
- Pima County Code § 8.08.050
- Pinal County — Food Service Worker Training
- Yavapai County — Food Worker Training
- Mohave County — Food Handler Classes & Certifications
- Yuma County — Environmental Health Services
- Coconino County — Environmental Health Certifications
- Santa Cruz County — Food Handler Training
- Navajo County — Training Resources
- Graham County — Food
- Indian Health Service — free food handler training
- Industrial Commission of Arizona — youth occupational restrictions
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Requirements are set locally — your county health department is the final word.
Managing or supervising an Arizona food establishment? See Arizona Food Manager Certification.
Work across a state line?
Food handler rules follow the establishment’s location, not where you live. If you work in a neighbouring state, its requirements may be different:
- California — card required
- Nevada — varies by county
- Utah — card required
- New Mexico — card required
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