Last verified: August 2026. Confirm with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture or your local health department before paying for anything.
State requirement: No statewide requirement
Law: No state law · Authority: Pennsylvania DOH · Verified: August 2026
No food handler card in Pennsylvania. The law requires one certified person per facility, not every worker.
Pennsylvania does not require food workers to hold a food handler card. What it has is a law called the Food Employee Certification Act — a name that reads exactly like a worker-card statute and is not one.
The Act requires each retail food facility to have one certified employee. That certificate is a food manager credential. If you are a line cook, server, barista or dishwasher in Pennsylvania, none of it applies to you personally.
Quick answer
- Do you need a food handler card in Pennsylvania? No.
- But the law is called “Food Employee Certification”? It is, and it binds facilities rather than employees. One certified person per facility.
- Does that person have to be there? Present or immediately accessible at all hours of operation — and they are the person in charge whenever physically present and on duty.
- How long does the certificate last? Pennsylvania sets no period. The Act defers entirely to whatever interval the accredited programme sets.
- Does Philadelphia have its own food handler card? No. Philadelphia has its own manager certificate — one per establishment, $30, five years.
- Pittsburgh? Allegheny County requires a certified manager present whenever TCS food is handled — stricter than the state, but still not a worker card.
- Is there anywhere in Pennsylvania that requires something of every worker? Technically yes — one archaic city ordinance. See the Wilkes-Barre section, and read it before you panic.
What it’s called: Pennsylvania’s law is the Food Employee Certification Act, and the credential it requires is a food manager certificate held by one person per facility. Searches for a Pennsylvania food handlers card, food handlers permit, food handler certificate or food handlers license all lead to that same rule — there is no separate worker card, permit or license in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia issues its own Food Safety Certificate, covered below.
What the Act actually says
The operative provision is 3 Pa.C.S. § 6504(a), reproduced word for word in the regulation at 7 Pa. Code § 46.1201(a):
“A retail food facility shall have at least one employee who holds a valid certificate present at the retail food facility or immediately accessible at all hours of operation and who is the person in charge of the retail food facility when physically present and on duty.”
Three things follow, and all three are routinely got wrong.
- “At least one employee” — the duty is the facility’s, not yours. It is satisfied by one person.
- “Present or immediately accessible” — Pennsylvania sits between the states that require a certified manager merely to be employed and those that require one physically on site. Reachable counts.
- The certificate is a manager credential. PDA puts it bluntly on its own page: “Ensure you enroll in a MANAGER course, not a food handler course.”
One more detail worth knowing if you work for a chain: under § 6504(a.1) a certified person may generally cover only a single facility. The exception is a proprietor running multiple stands at a temporary fair or festival, where one certified person may cover them all.
A citation note, because this trips people up
The regulations are at 7 Pa. Code Chapter 46, Subchapter I. If you find something citing “7 Pa. Code Chapter 78” for food employee certification, it is citing something that does not govern this. And the Act was created by Act 124 of 2000 — Act 106 of 2010 is the instrument that substantially amended it, not the one that made it.
Validity: Pennsylvania sets no period at all
This is the correction most worth making, because the “five years” figure is everywhere. 3 Pa.C.S. § 6504(f):
“Certification shall be in effect for the certification interval prescribed by the accredited certification program described in section 6503(c). Renewal of certification shall be based on the successful completion of the certification requirements of an accredited certification program.”
So Pennsylvania imposes no statutory validity period and defers wholly to the programme. Where a five-year term applies, it is the programme’s term, not the Commonwealth’s. Anyone telling you “Pennsylvania certificates are valid for five years” has attributed a private company’s renewal cycle to the state.
The deadlines Pennsylvania does set
- Three months after licensing for a new facility to comply (§ 6503(d)). PDA’s website words this as 90 days; the statute is the authority.
- Three months from losing your certified employee to replace them (§ 6504(d)).
- Names and certificate numbers must be kept at the place of business and made available for inspection (§ 6504(e)).
- The original certificate must be posted in public view at the business location (7 Pa. Code § 46.1201(c)).
No reciprocity clause and no state fee — both were repealed
Sections 6506 (reciprocal agreements), 6507 (suspension of certification) and 6509 (fees) were all repealed by Act 106 of 2010, effective early 2011. Pennsylvania therefore has no statutory reciprocity provision and charges no state certification fee under the Act. Sources describing either are citing repealed law.
The 2010 amendments also deleted the defined term “supervisory employee” from the Act. Any description of Pennsylvania’s rule in terms of a “certified supervisory employee” is quoting a superseded version of the statute.
Who is exempt
Section 6510 exempts more than most people realise, and two of the exemptions work shift by shift — an unusual and genuinely useful feature.
- Prepackaged food only — facilities handling and selling only commercially prepackaged food are exempt. And a facility that does handle other food is exempt “during time periods or work shifts when only commercially prepackaged food is sold.”
- Non-potentially-hazardous food only — same structure, including the shift-level version.
- Food establishments — exempt entirely. The Act reaches only “retail food facilities”; manufacturing and wholesale operations fall outside it.
- Nonprofits — facilities managed by a 501(c)(3); by a volunteer fire company or an ambulance, religious, charitable, fraternal, veterans, civic, agricultural fair or agricultural association or a chartered auxiliary; and by organisations promoting extracurricular youth recreation for school-age children, on a not-for-profit basis. Organised camps are excluded from that last one.
An exempt facility may still seek certification voluntarily (§ 6504(c)(2)).
Which Food Code, and the change that has not happened
Pennsylvania does something unusual: it adopts the Food Code on a rolling basis rather than pinning an edition. 7 Pa. Code § 46.4 adopts “the provisions, terms, procedures, appendices and standards in the current edition of the Model Food Code” — but only “to the extent they do not conflict with” the Retail Food Facility Safety Act, the Food Safety Act, or Chapter 46 itself.
So Pennsylvania has the 2022 Food Code and its Supplement, with PDA not citing violations under the Supplement until 1 January 2026.
Why the 2022 person-in-charge rule does not apply here
The 2022 Food Code requires the person in charge to be a certified food protection manager. That provision changed the answer in Colorado. In Pennsylvania it has not taken effect, and the reason is a piece of statutory machinery worth understanding.
3 Pa.C.S. § 6504(a.2) pre-commits Pennsylvania to follow the FDA on exactly this point:
“Notwithstanding this chapter, if… the Food Code… recommends that a person in charge hold a certificate or recommends that a certificate holder with supervisory authority be present during hours of operation at a retail food facility, the department shall, by regulation, establish this recommended standard as the standard for retail food facilities.”
Note the words “by regulation.” It is not self-executing. The FDA condition has been met since 2017 and again in 2022, so PDA’s duty to promulgate is live and overdue — but until the regulation exists, § 6504(a) governs.
PDA has said so twice. Its most recent notice on the point, dated 10 December 2024: “At this time the provisions outlined in the Food Employee Certification Act with respect to Food Protection Manager Certification requirements remain as written.” An earlier March 2023 notice estimated 18 to 24 months for the change.
As of 30 August 2026 we can find no Pennsylvania Bulletin rulemaking making that change, and PDA’s published Chapter 46 still carries § 46.1201 in its original form. So the rule today is one certified employee, present or immediately accessible.
This is a “true today” fact with an overdue statutory mandate behind it. If you are reading this well after the date at the top, it is worth re-checking.
Which course counts
Approval runs on accreditation. 7 Pa. Code § 46.1201(b): “The Department recognizes certification programs evaluated and listed by accrediting agencies meeting Conference for Food Protection standards. A certificate of completion of a program is a ‘certificate’ for purposes of the requirement in subsection (a) and is adequate proof of compliance.”
PDA also publishes a list of approved courses — the current edition is dated 26 January 2026 — and points to the ANAB directory. Treat the list as a convenience, with accreditation as the operative test.
Two housekeeping failures worth knowing about
§ 46.1201(d) obliges PDA to publish its list “in the Pennsylvania Bulletin annually and when the list is revised,” and to post it “at www.agriculture.state.pa.us.”
That domain is dead — PDA content now lives on pa.gov. And we could find Bulletin notices for the list only in 2004, 2012, 2014 and 2016, with nothing recent, which suggests the annual publication duty has quietly lapsed. Neither failure changes what you must do; both are a caution against assuming an official document is current because it is official.
Local rules: preemption with a 1994 grandfather
Pennsylvania preempts local regulation of this subject — but not completely, and the exception matters.
“(e) Except as provided in subsection (f), the regulation of food safety protection and training standards for employees of retail food facilities is preempted by the Commonwealth.”
“(f) Any food employee certification program established by a county, city, borough, incorporated town or township prior to September 1, 1994, may remain in effect.”
So: no Pennsylvania locality may create a new food-worker training requirement, but anything established before September 1994 is expressly saved.
Philadelphia: no food handler card, but a city-issued Food Safety Certificate
Philadelphia has its own certificate, and it is the jurisdiction most often misdescribed. Philadelphia Code § 6-301(8)(a) requires an establishment to:
“During hours when food is being prepared, manufactured, cooked, processed, dressed, served or distributed, have present and in its employ at least one (1) person with a valid Food Establishment Personnel Food Safety Certificate…”
One person. Applying to establishments handling non-prepackaged potentially hazardous food. There is no Philadelphia food handler card, and the city’s course is expressly a Food Safety Manager course.
What is genuinely different about Philadelphia:
- The city issues its own certificate — the Department verifies your course completion and issues a Philadelphia credential.
- $30 new or renewal; $50 replacement, by money order.
- Valid five years, after which you must pass another approved course.
- ⚠️ Approval is by NAMED LIST, not accreditation. Philadelphia publishes a roster of approved providers — the current edition is dated April 2025, with about 34 entries, some offering Korean and Spanish. An ANAB-accredited course from a provider not on Philadelphia’s list does not automatically satisfy the city. This is the opposite of the state rule and the single most important operational difference in Pennsylvania.
- Exemptions — USDA-inspected facilities; bed and breakfasts with ten or fewer bedrooms serving only an included breakfast; prepackaged-only operations; temporary operations of seven days or fewer without a permanent location; and others the Department exempts on public health grounds.
- Processing takes up to 10 business days to verify and up to 30 business days to issue, so do not leave it late.
The city’s other duty on workers is a training obligation on the operator: the establishment must “ensure that employees are properly trained in food safety as it relates to their assigned duties.” No credential, no hours, no fee.
Allegheny County (Pittsburgh)
Allegheny County Article III § 325.A:
“All retail food facilities where unpackaged TCS food is handled in Allegheny County shall have at least one (1) Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) present at all times when TCS food is being handled.”
Present, not merely accessible — stricter than the state rule. Each location with food preparation needs its own on site. Approval here is by accreditation, and the county does not issue its own certificate; an ANSI-accredited CFPM certificate is accepted as-is. Valid five years. The county runs its own options at $145 for the two-day course, $115 for one-day recertification, and $75 for the exam alone.
Exempt: Class I and Class II facilities, 501(c)(3) organisations, volunteer fire companies and religious, charitable, fraternal, veterans or civic nonprofits, and nonprofit youth recreation organisations other than organised camps. Facilities that only store or display packaged TCS food are outside it.
⚠️ One provision to be aware of, because vendors misrepresent it. § 325.D: “The Department may require alternative food safety training for certain food workers in food facilities deemed not to require a CFPM.” That is a discretionary departmental power, not a standing mandate. It is the only part of Article III touching non-manager workers, and it creates no general requirement.
⚠️ Wilkes-Barre — the one genuine all-worker rule in Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre’s code, Chapter 11 “Food and Food Handlers,” Article II, § 11-16, makes it unlawful for any person “in any capacity whatsoever, whether as employer, employee, proprietor or as a member of the proprietor’s family” to handle unwrapped or unpackaged food intended for human consumption without cooking, unless they have first obtained a certificate from the health officer.
Read the detail before assuming this is a food handler card. It is a tuberculosis screening certificate. It is issued on documentation from a physician or roentgenologist of a chest X-ray or tine test within the past two years showing no active tuberculosis, repeated every two years. It is not a food safety training credential and should not be described as one.
Its history notes are 1960, 1976 and 1980. It has never been repealed — the surrounding sections are marked Reserved and this one is not — and it survives in the code as codified through Ordinance No. 4-2024. Because it predates September 1994, § 6503(f) expressly saves it from preemption.
So the honest position: the ordinance is legally standing, almost certainly dormant, and in obvious tension with modern practice. Whether Wilkes-Barre enforces it we could not establish from documents. If you work there and someone raises it, ring the city health department rather than relying on this page or any other. The City of Butler carries near-identical 1960s-era language at § 142-1.
Everywhere else
Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Delaware and Erie counties, State College Borough, Allentown, Bethlehem and York all operate manager-level, one-per-establishment requirements and none requires a worker card. Chester, Montgomery and Bethlehem use accreditation; Bucks and State College approve courses locally; Delaware and Erie explicitly defer to the state Act. Montgomery County’s page usefully distinguishes “a Manager Certification course” from “a Food Handlers course” in so many words.
Finding out which applies to you
PDA regulates most retail food in Pennsylvania — not the Department of Health — but a facility inside a local health jurisdiction answers to that department instead. The two official lists of those jurisdictions do not agree with each other: PDA’s retail food page names seven counties, its certification page names six and adds State College Borough, and the Department of Health’s list adds four municipal departments. Neither is complete alone.
The reliable answer is PDA’s Food Safety Jurisdiction Search, which tells you which authority covers a given address.
The other section named “food handlers”
Worth pre-empting, because the title is misleading. 28 Pa. Code § 27.153 is headed “Restrictions on food handlers” and sits under the Department of Health’s communicable disease regulations. It provides that a person with certain diseases or conditions may not work as a food handler.
It is a disease exclusion rule. It imposes no card, no permit, no certificate and no training. A page citing it as evidence Pennsylvania regulates individual food workers has read a public health exclusion as a licensing scheme.
What this should cost you
As an ordinary Pennsylvania food worker: nothing. There is no state card, no state fee under the Act, and no local worker card outside the archaic Wilkes-Barre ordinance described above.
If you are the certified employee, costs depend on where you are:
- Most of Pennsylvania — the accredited course and exam, priced by the provider. PDA charges nothing on top.
- Philadelphia — an approved course from the city’s list, plus $30 for the city certificate ($50 to replace).
- Allegheny County — an accredited certificate, or the county’s own course at $145, recertification at $115, or the exam alone at $75.
- Erie County — the county runs classes at $155 including the exam, or $75 for the exam only.
What to do
- If an employer asks for your “Pennsylvania food handler card” — there isn’t one. The Food Employee Certification Act requires one certified person per facility, and the certificate is a manager credential.
- If you are becoming that certified person — enrol in a manager course, as PDA itself instructs. A food handler course will not satisfy the Act.
- In Philadelphia, check the city’s approved provider list first. Accreditation alone is not enough there — Philadelphia approves by name, and a course from an unlisted provider may not be accepted.
- Everywhere else, check accreditation rather than any list. Conference for Food Protection accreditation is the operative test.
- Do not assume five years. Pennsylvania sets no interval; your certificate expires on the programme’s terms, and Philadelphia’s own certificate runs five years from its own rules.
- Look up your jurisdiction using PDA’s Food Safety Jurisdiction Search before relying on any of this — a Philadelphia or Allegheny address changes the answer.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are served by the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), which has its own food safety program separate from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. ACHD licenses and inspects food service establishments in Pittsburgh and most of Allegheny County’s 130 municipalities.
ACHD does not require individual food workers to hold a food handler card. The state requirement — training within 60 days of hire, at least one certified food protection manager per establishment — is the applicable standard. ACHD enforces this under its own authority as a local health department. For the manager credential itself, see Pennsylvania food manager certification.
For comparison, Kansas food handler card covers a state with a true statewide worker card requirement.
Pittsburgh-specific details:
- ACHD issues food service permits directly (not through the state); your establishment’s permit comes from ACHD, not PDA
- The 60-day training requirement and the certified manager mandate both apply under ACHD enforcement
- No Allegheny County food handler card exists — generic “Pittsburgh food handler card” results online are selling you a national course that satisfies the training requirement but is not a county-issued credential
- Municipalities outside Pittsburgh but inside Allegheny County (Bethel Park, Mount Lebanon, McKeesport, Monroeville) are also under ACHD jurisdiction
For the rest of western Pennsylvania — Westmoreland, Butler, Lawrence, Beaver, Washington, Greene counties — the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture handles licensing and inspections directly. The state 60-day training rule applies; no county food handler card exists.
Food handler requirements by Pennsylvania county
Pennsylvania has no statewide food handler card, but several counties and cities run their own programs — and Philadelphia and Allegheny County are the two that matter most. Here is the county-by-county picture:
Philadelphia (Philadelphia County)
Philadelphia runs its own program through the Department of Public Health. The city requires at least one person with a valid Food Establishment Personnel Food Safety Certificate present whenever food is being prepared or served. There is no Philadelphia food handler card for individual workers; the certificate is a manager-level credential issued by the city from a named list of approved courses. This is separate from anything the state requires — a certificate from another Pennsylvania county does not satisfy Philadelphia’s rule.
Pittsburgh and Allegheny County
The Allegheny County Health Department enforces the state rule under its own authority: at least one certified food protection manager per establishment and training within 60 days of hire. It does not require individual food workers to hold a food handler card, and no Allegheny County card exists. Allegheny operates independently of the state Department of Agriculture for food facility oversight, which is why Pittsburgh requirements differ from most of the state.
Bucks County (Doylestown, Levittown, Bensalem)
Bucks County Health Department oversees food establishments. The certified food protection manager requirement applies to establishments; individual worker cards are not county-mandated, though many employers require training.
Montgomery County (Norristown, King of Prussia, Lansdale)
Montgomery County Office of Public Health licenses food facilities. No individual food handler card requirement at the county level beyond the manager certification rule.
Delaware County and Chester County
Both counties operate health departments overseeing food establishments. Neither requires an individual food handler card, but both enforce the certified manager requirement.
Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton (Lehigh and Northampton counties)
The Lehigh Valley cities each have municipal health bureaus. Allentown and Bethlehem operate their own health departments. Requirements focus on establishment licensing and manager certification rather than individual worker cards.
Erie County
The Erie County Department of Health oversees food establishments in Erie and surrounding communities. Standard manager certification requirement applies.
Reading (Berks County), Scranton (Lackawanna County), Harrisburg (Dauphin County)
These cities fall under the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s food safety program rather than a county health department, since these counties do not operate their own. The state requirement is establishment licensing plus a certified food protection manager — no individual worker card.
If your employer asks for a card anyway
Pennsylvania requires no statewide worker card, but Philadelphia and Allegheny County set their own rules and many employers ask for training. An ANSI-accredited online food handler course costs $7–$15 — check your county’s rules first if you work in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
Pennsylvania at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Worker food handler card required? | No |
| What the Food Employee Certification Act requires | One certified employee per retail food facility |
| Is that a handler or manager credential? | Manager — PDA says so explicitly |
| Must they be present? | Present or immediately accessible at all hours |
| One person, how many sites? | One facility only, except multiple stands at one temporary event |
| State-set validity period | None — set by the accredited programme |
| New facility deadline | Three months after licensing |
| Replacement window | Three months |
| State certification fee | None — the fees section was repealed in 2010 |
| Reciprocity clause | None — repealed in 2010 |
| Posting duty | Yes — original certificate in public view |
| Local rules | Preempted, except programmes established before 1 Sept 1994 |
| Philadelphia | Own certificate, $30, 5 years, named provider list |
| Allegheny County | Certified manager present whenever TCS food is handled |
| Wilkes-Barre | Grandfathered 1960s TB health certificate for all food handlers — dormant, enforcement unverified |
| Food Code | Rolling adoption of the current edition, subject to conflict with PA law |
| Cost to an ordinary worker | $0 |
Sources: 3 Pa.C.S. Chapter 65 (Food Employee Certification Act), §§ 6502, 6503, 6504, 6505, 6510; 7 Pa. Code Chapter 46 Subchapter I, §§ 46.4, 46.1141, 46.1201; Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services notices of 1 March 2023 and 10 December 2024 and its approved course listing of 26 January 2026; 28 Pa. Code § 27.153; Philadelphia Code § 6-301 and Department of Public Health approved provider list, April 2025; Allegheny County Health Department Article III; Wilkes-Barre Code § 11-16; and the published rules of Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Delaware and Erie counties, State College Borough, Allentown, Bethlehem and York. Requirements were checked against statute, regulation and ordinance text, not against training providers.
Running an establishment? See Pennsylvania 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 York — varies by county
- New Jersey — no card required
- Ohio — no card required
- Maryland — varies by county
- West Virginia — varies by county
- Delaware — no card required
Frequently asked questions
Does Pennsylvania require a food handler card?
No. Pennsylvania does not require food workers to hold a food handler card. The Food Employee Certification Act — despite its name — is a manager certification law, not a worker card law.
What is Pennsylvania’s Food Employee Certification Act?
Despite the name, the Food Employee Certification Act is a manager certification law. It requires a certified food manager at each facility — it does not require individual food workers to hold any card or certificate. The ’employee’ in the title refers to the certified manager employee, not to all food workers.
Does Pennsylvania also require a food manager certification?
Yes — see our Pennsylvania Food Manager Certification page for the full requirements and county specifics.