Last verified: August 2026. Statewide cards come from Alaska DEC; the Municipality of Anchorage runs its own program. Confirm which one covers your workplace before paying.
| Required | Get it within | Valid for |
|---|---|---|
| Yes — varies by municipality | Check local rules | Varies |
Law: AS § 17.20; 18 AAC 31 · Authority: Alaska DEC · Verified: August 2026
Required statewide, within 30 days of hire (21 in Anchorage). Anchorage issues its own card; see which one you need below.
Alaska requires a Food Worker Card for anyone handling unpackaged food — and there is a split that catches people out. The Municipality of Anchorage runs its own separate program and does not accept the state card. Which card you need depends entirely on who regulates the place you work.
Quick answer
- Yes, a Food Worker Card is required for anyone handling unpackaged food, statewide. The State of Alaska food handlers card is the DEC Food Worker Card; Anchorage issues its own.
- Cost: $10 for either card. Valid 3 years.
- Deadline: within 21 days of hire in Anchorage, 30 days everywhere else.
- Two programs, one-way reciprocity: the state DEC card is not valid in Anchorage, but the Anchorage card is valid everywhere. If in doubt, get the Anchorage card.
Alaska food handler card: two programs, one rule you can’t mix up
Alaska runs two separate food handler card programs simultaneously — the state DEC card and the Municipality of Anchorage card — and they are not interchangeable. Which one you need depends entirely on where your establishment is located, and the reciprocity runs only one direction: DEC accepts an Anchorage card, but Anchorage does not accept a DEC card. Both cost $10 and are valid for 3 years, but the hire deadlines differ (21 days for Anchorage, 30 days for the rest of the state), and the testing languages differ — which matters if English isn’t your first language. Here’s the full breakdown by location.
The Anchorage split — the key detail
On 1 January 2010 the Municipality of Anchorage began issuing its own Food Worker Cards. The two systems are not interchangeable, and the asymmetry is the single most important thing on this page:
- At a DEC-regulated facility — anywhere outside the Municipality — workers “must have a current, valid food worker card from the State or from the Municipality of Anchorage.” Either card works.
- At an Anchorage-regulated facility, only the Anchorage card counts. The Municipality’s own wording: “State of Alaska food worker cards are not valid in food establishments regulated by the Anchorage Health Department.”
So the Anchorage card is the more portable of the two. If there is any chance you will work on both sides of the municipal boundary, that is the one to get.
Working in Anchorage — the Municipality card
The requirement sits in the Anchorage Municipal Code at AMC 16.60.280: the operator of a food establishment must ensure each food worker, “within twenty-one (21) days after the date of hire, has been trained in basic food safety including employee health requirements.” The Anchorage Health Department puts it plainly — “all food workers at all facilities, regardless of Risk Type, must have a current food worker card.”
- Cost: $10 — “The online Anchorage Food Worker course and card fee is $10.” That single fee covers the course, the exam and the card.
- Valid: 3 years.
- Deadline: within 21 days of hire — nine days tighter than the state’s 30.
- Lost your card? If you finished the training more than 30 days ago, a replacement costs $5. Within 30 days you can reprint it from the training platform.
How to get it
Online. The Municipality’s course runs on the TAP Series platform under a municipal contract. You take the training and the exam in one sitting and download the card at the end.
In person. You can also, in the Municipality’s words, “come to the Anchorage Health Department, M-F 8 am-4 pm, and take the test on the 3rd floor in the Environmental Health Services Division.”
The Municipality does not publish a passing score or question count. The testing platform states a 40-question exam with a 70% pass mark, but treat that as the provider’s figure rather than an official one. (For comparison, the state DEC test is 20 questions and you need 15 right.)
Is your workplace actually inside the Municipality?
This is where people get the wrong card. The Municipality of Anchorage is a unified home-rule municipality covering roughly 1,960 square miles — a great deal more than the city proper. Eagle River and Chugiak are part of the Municipality, in its own words: “The communities of Eagle River and Chugiak … are part of the Municipality of Anchorage.” Girdwood is too — it joined at the 1975 merger and is administered as a Municipal service area.
If you work in any of those, you need the Anchorage card, not the state one. Environmental Health Services regulates food establishments across the whole Municipality with no sub-area carve-outs. If you are unsure which side of the line your workplace falls on, ask the Anchorage Health Department before you pay for a test.
If you need the test in a language other than English
This is the most useful thing on this page and almost nobody mentions it. The state DEC test appears to be offered in English only. Anchorage’s is not — and DEC itself points multilingual workers toward Anchorage:
“The Municipality of Anchorage offers food worker card tests in Spanish, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Food worker cards from the Municipality of Anchorage are accepted in facilities regulated by the Department of Environmental Conservation.”
Read that second sentence again, because it is the practical part: an Anchorage card is valid statewide. So if English is not your first language and you work in Fairbanks, Juneau, Bethel or anywhere else in Alaska, you can take the Anchorage test in your own language and the resulting card is accepted at your DEC-regulated workplace. You do not have to sit the English state test.
The training platform additionally lists American Sign Language, Russian and Arabic; those are the provider’s listings rather than something the Municipality publishes, so check before relying on them.
If you already hold a manager certification
Anchorage allows a manager credential to stand in for the food worker card: workers “who have completed a AHD approved 8 hour certified food protection manager program (ServSafe, for example) and have passed the exam within the last 5 years have met the food worker card requirement, and do not need to obtain a separate food worker card.”
Two conditions do the work there — it must be an AHD-approved 8-hour program, and the exam must have been passed within the last five years. This appears in the Health Department’s FAQ, which was last revised in 2018 and is the only place it is published, so confirm it still applies before relying on it.
Outside Anchorage — the state DEC card
Everywhere else in Alaska, the Department of Environmental Conservation runs the program. “The Alaska Food Code requires food workers to obtain a food worker card within 30 days of hire.” The requirement sits at 18 AAC 31.330.
- Study. DEC publishes the Alaska Safe Food Worker Handbook, and there is a free practice test on the DEC testing site — five questions, no payment or login needed.
- Buy a test ID ($10) through myAlaska, or in person at a DEC Food Safety and Sanitation office.
- Take the test. 20 questions; you need 15 correct, which is the 75% pass mark. Online it is self-administered with your purchased test ID; in person a test administrator prints a paper test for you.
- Print your card. Up to three additional copies can be printed free while it is valid.
What the $10 actually buys
A detail worth knowing before you pay: the $10 buys a test ID that is valid for one year, not the card itself. Within that year you can “retake the test as many times as needed using the original test ID” at no extra cost. If the test ID expires before you pass, you buy another one. Keep your test ID and invoice number — DEC needs them to reprint your card or look up your result.
If you pay by mail rather than online, DEC warns “it can take 2-3 weeks to receive your food worker card.”
Renewing
There isn’t a renewal process, in either system. Neither DEC nor the Municipality publishes a shortened renewal exam, a grace period or a reduced fee. When your three years are up you simply do the whole thing again — new test ID, new test, new card.
Who doesn’t need a card
DEC frames these as examples of activities rather than a closed list — individuals “may not need a food worker card if their role does not include working with unpackaged or potentially hazardous food or food-contact surfaces.” The examples it gives:
- Greeting or seating customers.
- Processing payment for food or other purchases.
- Working only with pre-packaged food — cashiers, grocery baggers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, shelf stockers.
- Assisting patients or residents with their meals at a hospital, assisted living home or rehabilitation center.
- Children under 18 assisting with school meal service in a school kitchen.
- Volunteer activities.
DEC states separately that “a food worker card is not required for those who have a current, valid Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) certificate.” Note that is departmental policy on DEC’s own page rather than something written into the regulation’s exclusion list.
Anchorage’s published list is broader still, adding stockers, warehouse and shipping staff, grocery checkers and baggers, delivery drivers, and patients or residents themselves. Anchorage has no separate “pre-packaged only” exemption — such workers simply fall outside the definition of a food worker rather than onto an exemption list.
The most common mistake
Buying a generic online “food handler card” from a national website and assuming it works in Alaska. It does not. DEC accepts cards issued by DEC or the Municipality of Anchorage and nothing else, and Anchorage accepts only its own. There is no reciprocity with other states and no approved third-party provider — both cards come from the government body that regulates your workplace.
The second most common mistake is the one this page opened with: getting the state card while working in Anchorage. It is the cheaper mistake to make and the more annoying one to fix, because you pay twice.
Alaska food worker card by city and borough
Alaska runs a statewide food worker card program through the Department of Environmental Conservation. The card is valid anywhere in the state, but the Municipality of Anchorage operates its own separate program. Here is how that breaks down:
Anchorage (Municipality of Anchorage)
Anchorage runs its own food worker card program, separate from the state DEC card. If you work in food service inside the Municipality of Anchorage — including Eagle River, Chugiak, and Girdwood — you need the Anchorage card. A state DEC card does not substitute for it. This is the single most common point of confusion for Alaska food workers.
Fairbanks (Fairbanks North Star Borough)
Fairbanks uses the statewide Alaska DEC food worker card; there is no Fairbanks-specific card. Take the training and exam through the state program. The card is valid for three years and works anywhere in Alaska outside the Municipality of Anchorage.
Juneau (City and Borough of Juneau)
Juneau, a consolidated city-borough, uses the state DEC card; there is no separate Juneau card. Given the heavy summer cruise-ship-driven food service season, seasonal workers should obtain the card before arriving — it can be completed online.
Wasilla and Palmer (Matanuska-Susitna Borough)
The Mat-Su Borough uses the statewide DEC card. Note that Mat-Su is outside the Municipality of Anchorage, so the Anchorage card is not required here. If you work in both Wasilla and Anchorage, get the Anchorage card: it is accepted statewide, while the DEC card is not valid in Anchorage.
Kenai, Soldotna, and Homer (Kenai Peninsula Borough)
All use the statewide DEC food worker card. The Kenai Peninsula has significant seasonal fishing-industry food service; the state card covers processing facility food handling as well as restaurants.
Sitka, Ketchikan, and Southeast Alaska
Southeast communities use the statewide DEC card. Online completion is the practical route given limited in-person testing availability.
Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, and rural Alaska
Rural and Bush communities use the statewide DEC card, completed online. The state program is designed to be accessible without travel to a testing center.
The rule of thumb: if you are not working inside the Municipality of Anchorage, the state DEC card covers you. The boundary is tighter than people expect: Eagle River and Girdwood are inside it; Wasilla and Palmer are not.
Alaska at a glance
| Required? | Yes — a Food Worker Card, everywhere in Alaska |
| Two issuers | Alaska DEC (statewide) · Municipality of Anchorage (inside the MOA) |
| Deadline after hire | 30 days (DEC) · 21 days (Anchorage) |
| Cost | $10 either way. Anchorage replacement $5; DEC allows 3 free reprints |
| Valid for | 3 years, both |
| Passing score | DEC: 15 of 20 (75%). Anchorage: not published by the Municipality |
| Does Anchorage accept a state card? | No. DEC does accept an Anchorage card |
| Test languages | DEC: English. Anchorage: Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese — and valid statewide |
| Inside the Municipality | Includes Eagle River, Chugiak and Girdwood |
| Out-of-state cards | Not accepted by either issuer |
| Renewal | No renewal process — retake the test after 3 years |
Common questions
Does Alaska require a food handler card?
Yes. Alaska requires a Food Worker Card for anyone handling unpackaged food. The state card comes from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC); the Municipality of Anchorage runs its own program, and only the Anchorage card is valid in both.
How much is a food worker card in Alaska?
$10, whichever card you need. For the state card that $10 buys a test ID valid one year, with unlimited free retakes inside it; for the Anchorage card it covers the course, exam and card together.
Can I use my Alaska state card in Anchorage?
No. The Anchorage Health Department does not accept State of Alaska food worker cards. It only works the other way round — an Anchorage card is accepted at DEC-regulated facilities across the state.
Is the food worker card test available in Spanish?
Yes — through the Municipality of Anchorage, which offers it in Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Because Anchorage cards are accepted statewide, you can take that test wherever in Alaska you work. The state DEC test is in English.
How long do I have after being hired?
30 days at a DEC-regulated facility, 21 days inside the Municipality of Anchorage.
Does a food handler card from another state work in Alaska?
No. DEC names only its own card and the Municipality of Anchorage card as acceptable, and Anchorage accepts only its own. There is no provision for cards issued elsewhere.
I work in Eagle River — which card do I need?
The Anchorage one. Eagle River, Chugiak and Girdwood are all inside the Municipality of Anchorage, so the Anchorage Health Department regulates food establishments there.
How long is an Alaska food worker card valid?
Three years, from either issuer. There is no renewal process — you retake the test.
Do I need a card if I only handle packaged food?
Generally no. DEC lists working only with pre-packaged food — cashiers, baggers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, shelf stockers — among the activities that do not require a card, because the requirement attaches to unpackaged food, potentially hazardous food and food-contact surfaces.
Does Alaska also require a food manager certification?
Yes, but that is a separate, facility-level certification. See our Alaska Food Manager Certification page.
Official sources
- Alaska DEC — Food Worker Cards
- DEC — food worker card testing site (and free practice test)
- Alaska Safe Food Worker Handbook (PDF)
- Municipality of Anchorage — Food Worker Card testing
- Anchorage Health Department — Food Safety Resources
- Anchorage Health Department — Food Safety FAQ (PDF)
- 18 AAC 31 — Alaska Food Code
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Alaska DEC and the Anchorage Health Department are the final word.
Running an establishment? See Alaska 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:
- Washington — card required
- Oregon — card required