Answer: No, if you are already registered for the Intermediate Certificate in Food Safety you are automatically registered for all of the new Level 2 and Level 3 Awards. Similarly, if your current registration is for the Advanced Certificate in Food Safety you will be able to offer all of the Level 2, 3 and 4 Awards and centres registered only for the Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene will now be registered for all of the Level 2 Awards. The exception to this is the Level 2 Certificate in Wild Game Meat Hygiene, which is only available to those centres that have been specifically approved for this qualification. Of course, you can apply for approval to run any of the new qualifications that you are not registered for.

Answer: Centres submitting examination requests for the Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene Option B, that are received before October 1st, will be sent the current exam paper for the Foundation Certificate, irrespective of when the exam date is. Centres submitting exam paper requests after this date will be sent one of the new exam papers for the Level 2 Award in Food Safety for Manufacturing.

Answer: No, the accreditation period for the Intermediate Certificate in Food Safety (and the Advanced Certificate in Food Safety) has been extended to the end of 2006. All candidates registered with us for the Intermediate Certificate in Food Safety (or Advanced Certificate in Food Safety) before December 31st 2006 can take the examination for this qualification up to December 31st 2007.

Answer: The office staff at RSPH will check with centres whenever a registration for the Intermediate Certificate or Advanced Certificate is received, to ensure that you have requested the correct qualification.

Answer: You will still be able to teach mixed groups, but you will have to enter candidates for different exams, depending on their sector. We will have comparison tables on our web-site so that you will be able to see the main differences between the qualifications for the different sectors in order to help you with mixed group teaching. We have tried to keep these differences to a minimum, and most differences are due solely to the different contexts, but we have had to meet the requirements of the different sector skills councils in order to obtain accreditation for the new qualifications.

Answer: The main difference, for all levels of qualification, is that the new qualifications are more focussed on the specific sector; catering (including Care), retail or manufacturing. There is greater emphasis on HACCP and food safety management procedures, including more detail on monitoring, recording and reporting (for Level 2), and correcting deviations from acceptable limits for Level 3 and Level 4 Awards. The amount of knowledge required on microbiology has been reduced for the Level 2 and 3 Awards; candidates will no longer be required to learn specific details about different bacteria, only generalised symptoms, growth requirements and sources, vehicles and routes of bacterial contamination are required, as well as an appreciation of the importance of microbial spores and toxins. The knowledge requirement relating to food preservation is also reduced.

Answer: The qualifications were due for reaccreditation by July 31st 2006. The new (2006) food hygiene regulations required that HACCP and food safety management received greater emphasis in the syllabuses, and the various sector skills councils took the opportunity to require the awarding bodies to produce sector - specific qualifications. In terms of food safety management, individuals who are required to work within a food safety management system (i.e food handlers or operatives) should aim to achieve the Level 2 Award, individuals who will need to ensure that the food safety management system is working and maintained (supervisors and line managers) should achieve the Level 3 Award, and individuals whose duty is to implement and / or develop a food safety management system should achieve the Level 4 Award.

Answer: Centres are entitled to switch between awarding bodies. However, no awarding body will be able to offer the current Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced qualifications after 31st December 2006. The accreditation for these qualifications expires at the end of 2006, for all awarding bodies.

Answer: The Fundamentals series of qualifications will remain unchanged for the present, but we will be making slight changes to these next year so that they reflect the Level 2 Awards as appropriate.