Prometric stopped issuing food manager certifications on 1 April 2022, which leaves ServSafe and NRFSP as the two live options named here. ServSafe passes at 56 of 80 scored questions; NRFSP passes at a scaled 75 that its own handbook says is not a percentage.
Employers accept whichever credential their jurisdiction’s law requires. ServSafe Food Handler passes at 30 of 40 questions (75%) and runs three years, but a franchise’s onboarding policy or a staffing agency’s host site can still add requirements the law itself never demanded.
ServSafe Manager certification runs five years from your exam date; Food Handler and Alcohol certificates run three. Allergens carries no published validity window at all, since ServSafe issues it as a certificate of completion rather than a certification exam.
A hand sink missing soap or towels stops functioning as one under health code, and ServSafe treats a sanitizer-only routine as a failed wash. Personal Hygiene, the content area covering handwashing, illness reporting, and grooming, carries eight of the Food Handler exam’s forty scored questions.
ServSafe publishes two book lines, not one called a “booklet”: the Manager Book, now in its 9th Edition under product codes ES9 and ES9SP, and the academic Coursebook, sold in 7th, 8th, and 9th Editions. Passing the Manager exam at 56 of 80 earns the credential, whichever book someone studied from.
The ServSafe Coursebook 8th Edition belongs to ServSafe’s academic Coursebook line, the one classrooms and instructor-led programs assign. The separate Manager Book has no 8th edition of its own, and both lines lead to the identical certification exam: 90 questions, 80 scored, a pass mark of 56.
ServSafe Manager is one of thirteen ANAB-accredited food protection manager programs, passed at 56 of the 80 scored questions, which is 70%, not the 75% many sites publish. Food Safety Manager is the broader legal category the exam sits inside.
Certified Food Protection Manager is the legal status most health codes require; ServSafe Manager is one ANAB-accredited exam that satisfies it, passed at 56 of 80 scored questions — 70%, not the 75% most sites publish.
ServSafe Food Handler training ends in a 40-question assessment passed at 30 correct, and the certificate runs three years rather than five. Whether you are required to hold one at all is set by your local health department and your employer; ServSafe has no say in it.
ServSafe gives a Food Handler Certificate of Achievement, earned at 30 of 40 (75%) and valid three years. Whether it counts as your “permit” is set by your local jurisdiction, not by ServSafe.
