Last verified: August 2026. Confirm with the Massachusetts DPH Food Protection Program and your local board of health before paying for anything.
State requirement: No statewide requirement
Law: No state law · Authority: Massachusetts DPH · Verified: August 2026
No state card, and Boston doesn’t require one. One certified manager per establishment trains staff, including on allergens.
State requirement: No statewide requirement
Law: No state law · Authority: Massachusetts DPH · Verified: August 2026
Massachusetts does not require food workers to hold a food handler card. There is no state card, no exam for line staff, and no fee.
But Massachusetts is the one state on this site where we will not tell you that no city requires one either — because local boards of health here have genuine independent power to add requirements, there are 351 of them, and there is no central register to check them against. We found a live ordinance in one city that requires something of every food worker. Details below.
There is also a real Massachusetts requirement that gets mis-sold constantly: allergen awareness. It is genuine, it is unusual, and it does not work the way most sites describe it.
Quick answer
- Do you need a food handler card in Massachusetts? No state law requires one.
- Do you need an allergen awareness certificate? Almost certainly not personally — the certificate belongs to one certified manager per establishment. But you must be trained in allergen awareness by that person.
- Who needs the certified manager qualification? One on-site manager or supervisor, aged 18 or over, per establishment.
- Can a Massachusetts city require more? Yes. State law expressly permits it, and this is the crucial difference from most states.
- Does Boston require a worker card? No. Boston’s requirements are at establishment and manager level only.
- What should this cost you? Nothing, as an ordinary worker.
The allergen requirement — what it actually is
Massachusetts was first in the nation on food allergy awareness, and the rules are real. They are also the most over-sold thing in the state, so it is worth being exact.
The governing provision is 105 CMR 590.011(C)(3), and it does two different things to two different people.
The certificate belongs to one person
“Such food establishments shall have on staff a certified food protection manager who has been issued a Massachusetts certificate of allergen awareness training by an allergen awareness training verification program recognized by the Department. The certificate will be valid for five years.”
One person — the certified food protection manager. Not every worker. If someone is telling you that you personally must buy a Massachusetts allergen certificate, check first whether you are the establishment’s certified manager. If you are not, you almost certainly do not need one.
But every worker must be trained
This is the part that is real for you. The same regulation requires the certified manager to:
“Ensure that employees are properly trained in food allergy awareness as it relates to their assigned duties.”
That is a genuine, enforceable, worker-level duty — discharged in-house by your manager. There is no exam, no state certificate, no registry and no fee attached to it. Your employer trains you; that satisfies the rule.
Note who this reaches: schools, educational institutions, summer camps, childcare and USDA Child Nutrition Program participants are exempt from most of 590.011(C) — but not from the duty to train employees. That obligation follows you into a school kitchen.
Five years — and this time it really is the state’s number
On most of our state pages we have to warn that a five-year validity is the training company’s own term rather than the state’s. Massachusetts is the rare exception, and it cuts both ways within the same state:
- The allergen certificate: five years, set by the STATE. 105 CMR 590.011(C)(3)(a) says so in terms — “The certificate will be valid for five years.”
- The certified food protection manager certificate: five years, set by the PROGRAMME. 105 CMR 590.002 sets no expiry at all. DPH merely “accepts Certificates with a five-year expiration date issued by any of the following Nationally-Accredited Exam Organizations.”
Two five-year periods, in the same regulation, with different legal sources. Worth knowing if anyone tells you Massachusetts sets a five-year rule — it depends entirely which certificate they mean.
How allergen courses are approved — this changed in October 2024
Massachusetts used to approve a single allergen video from a short list of named providers. That regime is gone. Since 7 October 2024, DPH “will no longer review and approve specific training courses.” A course now qualifies if it meets any one of three criteria:
- Accredited or certified to ANAB standards and including the allergen content DPH specifies; or
- Approved by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) through its FAREcheck programme; or
- It includes an interactive video, an exam to assess knowledge, and the allergen content areas DPH specifies.
So this is now a criteria-based system, not an approved-provider list. A great deal of material online still describes the old named-list regime. If a seller tells you their course is “the DPH-approved allergen video,” that framing has been obsolete since October 2024.
⚠️ Two official sources disagree, and you should know which is which
There is an unresolved conflict between two documents DPH publishes right now.
The regulation — 105 CMR 590.011(C)(3)(a) — says an establishment shall “have on staff” a certified manager with the allergen certificate. That is an employment test, with no presence requirement.
The DPH allergen FAQ page says: “The permit holder or designated person in charge must be trained in allergen awareness and must be on site during all operating hours.”
The FAQ asserts a continuous on-site presence requirement the regulation’s text does not contain, and shifts the duty from the certified manager to the person in charge. As a matter of law the regulation controls — but a local inspector may well work from the FAQ. If this affects you, ring the DPH Food Protection Program on 617-983-6712 rather than relying on either document alone.
The certified food protection manager
Massachusetts amends the Food Code’s manager rule in a way that is slightly stricter than most states. Under 105 CMR 590.002:
“each food establishment shall employ at least one person in charge who shall be an on-site manager or supervisor and is 18 years of age or older and who by being a certified food protection manager has shown proficiency…”
The words “on-site manager or supervisor” matter. Several states let the certified person be any employee with supervisory authority, which lets a corporate office hold the certificate for a restaurant nobody there has ever visited. Massachusetts closes that.
But it does not require the certified person to be present at every hour, because the regulation expressly contemplates someone else running the shift:
“The owner or person(s) in charge shall designate an alternate person to be in charge at all times when they cannot be present. The alternate, when acting as the person in charge shall be responsible for all duties specified in FC 2-103.11.”
The alternate does not have to be certified. So the shift you are working may be run by an uncertified person in charge, entirely lawfully. Boston states the same thing in its own words: the backup person in charge “doesn’t need to get certified, but they must understand food safety and illness prevention.”
The details
- Approval by accreditation, not a closed list — Massachusetts “accepts Certificates … issued by any of the following Nationally-Accredited Exam Organizations,” and publishes a directory of who currently qualifies (last dated 5 January 2026).
- 60 days to hire a replacement if the certified manager leaves, with the board of health able to grant a further 60.
- Documentation must be posted next to the establishment’s food permit.
- Exempt: temporary non-profit events such as school sports and church suppers, daycares serving only snacks, pre-packaged and limited-preparation establishments, satellite feeding sites receiving prepared meals, and elderly meal sites under 651 CMR 4.00.
Which Food Code Massachusetts uses
The 2013 FDA Food Code, as amended by its Supplement, incorporated by 105 CMR 590.001(A). The current version of 105 CMR 590 took effect 5 October 2018.
This matters because several neighbouring states have moved to the 2022 Food Code, which requires the person in charge to be a certified manager. Massachusetts has not. Material asserting that rule for Massachusetts is importing another state’s law.
What Massachusetts requires of you personally
No card does not mean no duties, and Massachusetts adds two of its own to the standard Food Code set.
Illness reporting — with a Massachusetts addition
The usual reporting duties apply, and 105 CMR 590.002 extends the reportable list to include “any other disease transmissible through food so designated in 105 CMR 300.000” — the state’s reportable diseases regulation. So the Massachusetts list is longer than the federal one and can change without the Food Code changing.
⚠️ The norovirus rule — unusual and worth knowing
Massachusetts writes a specific exclusion into its code that most states leave to case-by-case judgement:
“Food handling facility employees who test positive for Norwalk virus, Norwalk-like virus, norovirus, or any other calicivirus shall be excluded from food handling duties for either 72 hours past the resolution of symptoms or 72 hours past the date the positive specimen was provided, whichever occurs last.”
Note it runs from whichever is later. If you test positive in Massachusetts, feeling better is not the trigger.
The rest
- Handwashing — the standard Food Code provisions apply unamended.
- Exclusion and restriction — decided by the person in charge once you report.
- Allergen training — see above; your manager’s duty to give you, not yours to buy.
- Latex — 105 CMR 590.003(C) states that single-use natural rubber latex gloves “are not recommended for food contact in food establishments.”
One definitional point with real consequences: Massachusetts defines a “food employee” to include owners, supervisors, family members and volunteers. If you help out unpaid at a family restaurant or a church supper, these duties are yours too.
⚠️ Local boards of health — and why Massachusetts is different
On most of our state pages we can tell you that no city or county requires a card, and often that none may. Massachusetts is the exception on both counts, and we would rather say so than give you false comfort.
State law expressly permits stricter local rules
“This section shall not be deemed to limit the right of any board of health to adopt such rules and regulations as, in its opinion, may be necessary for the particular locality under its jurisdiction; provided, such rules and regulations do not conflict with the laws of the commonwealth or the provisions of the code.”
And § 31: “Boards of health may make reasonable health regulations.” The state code is titled Minimum Sanitation Standards. It is a floor, not a ceiling.
There are 351 cities and towns, each with its own board of health, plus two federally recognised Tribes. DPH does not publish a consolidated directory of them — it tells you to check your own municipality’s website. So there is no single place to look up whether your town has added something.
Boston
Boston requires nothing of ordinary food workers. The Boston Public Health Commission does hold independent regulatory power, but it has not used it for food — its published regulations cover tobacco, body art, nail salons, trans fat and similar, and the Board routes food enquiries to the Inspectional Services Department, which enforces the state code.
Boston’s establishment permit requires a Certified Food Protection Manager certificate and an Allergen Awareness certificate, plus a common victualler licence for restaurants. All of that sits at establishment and manager level. The person in charge must be 18 or over and certified; the backup need not be.
⚠️ Somerville still requires a chest X-ray of everyone who handles food
This is not a food handler card, and it is almost certainly not enforced — but it is on the books, and you should know it exists.
Somerville Code of Ordinances § 6-23, titled “X-ray exams for those handling food”:
“Every person now engaged in the processing, preparing, serving or handling of food shall have a chest X-ray examination and submit evidence of such X-ray to the board of health within one month and once every three years thereafter.”
Its history note is “(Code 1963, § 4-15)” — it carried over from Somerville’s 1963 code and has never been amended. It is not marked repealed and not marked reserved. We verified the section title and text directly against the code database rather than taking it second-hand.
What to make of it: this is a tuberculosis screening rule from an era when that was routine, not a food safety credential. No course satisfies it. Somerville’s Health Division publishes nothing about it and describes only establishment licensing. Universal chest X-rays as a condition of employment would not survive modern law. Treat it as a dead letter that nobody has cleaned up — but if a Somerville employer raises it, that is where it comes from.
Three more towns worth knowing about
Fairhaven is a genuine conflict between two official sources. The codified regulations at Chapter 426 § 426-2 require “a valid food handler’s certificate for each employee engaged in the preparation or serving of food,” issued by the board of health on the basis of Mantoux tuberculosis testing. But the Board of Health’s own currently published regulations PDF omits that section entirely and closes up the numbering. Our reading is that it was dropped in practice and survives only in the codifier’s version. If you work in Fairhaven, ring the board of health rather than trusting either document.
Fall River has a dangling penalty: § 34-227 still punishes an owner who “employs nonlicensed food handlers” — while every section that would have licensed one is marked Reserved. There is no Fall River food handler licence to hold. Read alone, that section would tell you otherwise.
Brookline states on its health department’s own website that “other than someone holding a CPFM certificate, all food handlers shall receive or obtain training in basic food handling principles,” with certificates valid three years and exemptions for temporary and volunteer staff. We could not find a Brookline regulation behind that sentence — the town’s regulations index links the state code for food, not a local rule. It may be departmental policy rather than an ordinance. Ask the town.
Haverhill lists “Mandatory Food Handlers Training” as an adopted local regulation on two official pages, but the regulation itself is not among the 34 published in its board of health library, and no worker fee appears in its fee schedule. Also worth a phone call.
What we can and cannot tell you
Being straight about the limits: we checked roughly 35 of the 351 boards of health — Boston and the largest cities, plus opportunistic finds. We cannot tell you that no Massachusetts municipality requires a food handler card. What we can say is that no state requirement exists, none of the major cities has one, and the local provisions we did find are archaic health-screening rules rather than training credentials.
If your employer says your town requires something, the place to check is your municipal board of health — not this page, and not a training vendor.
Things that look like requirements and are not
Choke-saving
Restaurants seating 25 or more must have an approved anti-choking device on the premises, or an employee trained in approved manual procedures when food is being served. One employee, as an alternative to a device, with no individual certificate. It reads like a per-worker training mandate and is not.
“Food permit” is not a worker permit
Permits under 105 CMR 590.014 and common victualler licences are establishment permits issued to the permit holder by the local board of health. Search results conflate them with a personal card constantly.
The allergen oversell
Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the most common way Massachusetts workers get charged for something they do not need: the certificate is the certified manager’s; the training is yours and comes from them.
Stale citations on official pages
Boston’s own Food Manager Certification page frames the requirement on the basis of “Massachusetts State regulations from 2001.” The governing version of 105 CMR 590 has been the October 2018 version for years. The substance Boston states is right; the citation is not.
Who inspects your workplace
Massachusetts runs a local-primary model. Your city or town’s board of health issues the food permit, inspects the establishment and enforces 105 CMR 590. DPH is the backstop: if a board fails to act after notice, the Department may enforce directly, and in an imminent health hazard it may act without notifying the board at all.
DPH keeps direct jurisdiction over food processing, dairy and shellfish — not restaurant inspection.
Practically: the authority over you is named on the permit posted in your workplace, with the certified manager’s documentation next to it. There is no state-level lookup.
What this should cost you
As an ordinary Massachusetts food worker: nothing. No card, no state fee, no registration. Your allergen training comes from your certified manager at your employer’s expense.
If you are becoming the certified manager, there are two things to buy and they are separate: the accredited food protection manager course and exam, and an allergen awareness course meeting one of the three criteria above. Both run about five years, for different legal reasons.
If a site is selling you a “Massachusetts food handler card,” no such credential exists. If it is selling you a personal allergen certificate and you are not the certified manager, you are being sold your employer’s obligation.
What to do
- If an employer asks for your “food handler card” — Massachusetts has none. Ask whether they mean the allergen training they are required to give you.
- If you are told you need an allergen certificate — check whether you are the certified food protection manager. If not, the certificate is theirs and the training is yours to receive.
- Check your own town’s board of health. This is the one state where that is a real step rather than a formality, and there is no central list to do it for you.
- If you are becoming the certified manager — the qualification must come from a nationally accredited exam organisation, and you will need the allergen certificate as well.
- Learn the norovirus rule. Seventy-two hours past resolution of symptoms or past the positive specimen date, whichever is later. It is stricter than most people assume.
If your employer asks for a card anyway
Massachusetts requires no worker card, though allergen awareness training is a separate requirement for some staff. An ANSI-accredited online food handler course costs $7–$15 and satisfies most employer requests.
Massachusetts at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Worker food handler card required by the state? | No |
| Can a city or town require one? | Yes — boards of health may exceed the state floor |
| Does any major city require one? | No — Boston and the large cities are manager-level only |
| Allergen certificate — who holds it? | The certified food protection manager, one per establishment |
| Allergen training — who needs it? | Every employee, trained in-house by that manager |
| Allergen certificate validity | 5 years — set by the STATE |
| Manager certificate validity | 5 years — set by the PROGRAMME, not the state |
| Allergen course approval | Criteria-based since 7 Oct 2024 — no approved-provider list |
| Manager course approval | Accreditation, with a published directory |
| Must the certified manager be present? | No — an uncertified alternate may be the person in charge |
| Replacement window | 60 days, extendable by 60 |
| Food Code edition | 2013 FDA Food Code with Supplement, effective 5 Oct 2018 |
| Norovirus exclusion | 72 hours past symptom resolution or positive specimen, whichever is later |
| Cost to an ordinary worker | $0 |
Sources: 105 CMR 590.000 (State Sanitary Code Chapter X), especially §§ 590.001, 590.002, 590.008, 590.011 and 590.014; M.G.L. c. 111 §§ 31 and 127A; M.G.L. c. 140 § 6B; M.G.L. c. 94 § 305D; Massachusetts DPH Food Protection Program guidance and allergen FAQs; the DPH food protection manager certification directory; City of Boston Inspectional Services and the Boston Public Health Commission; and the published codes and board of health materials of Somerville, Fairhaven, Fall River, Brookline, Haverhill, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge, Framingham, Malden, Lynn, Everett, Quincy, Newton, Northbridge, Ashland, Barnstable and Provincetown. Requirements were checked against regulation and ordinance text, not against training providers.
Managing or supervising a Massachusetts food establishment? See Massachusetts 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:
- New Hampshire — no card required
- Rhode Island — no card required
- Connecticut — no card required
- New York — varies by county
- Vermont — no card required
Frequently asked questions
Does Massachusetts require a food handler card?
Yes. Massachusetts requires two certificates for food workers: a food handler certificate and a separate allergen awareness certificate. Both are available online and required statewide — see the cost section on this page for current figures.
How much does a Massachusetts food handler card cost?
Massachusetts requires two separate certificates, each priced individually online. See the cost section on this page for current figures and validity terms.
What is the Massachusetts allergen awareness certificate?
Massachusetts requires all food handlers to complete a separate allergen awareness training in addition to the standard food handler certificate. The allergen awareness certificate is a Massachusetts-specific requirement — most other states do not require it. Both are available online — see the cost section on this page for current pricing.
Does Massachusetts also require a food manager certification?
Yes — but that’s a separate, facility-level certification. See our Massachusetts Food Manager Certification page for the details.