Virginia doesn't require a food handlers card. Its Food Regulations, 12VAC5-421, require two other things. Every food establishment has at least one certified food protection manager, an employee with authority over food preparation and service who passed an accredited exam. And the person in charge makes sure employees are properly trained in food safety, including food allergy awareness, as it relates to their duties. Establishments that serve only food that doesn't need time or temperature control, or that only reheat or cold hold commercially cooked foods, are exempt from the manager rule, and they can't cool TCS food. At inspection, the person in charge shows their knowledge by having no priority violations, being a certified manager, or answering the inspector's questions correctly. In the example below, a Harrisonburg tamale kitchen checks five people. Below are the rules, the training duty, the example, and a free roster.
The short version
- No food handlers card in Virginia.
- At least one employee with supervisory authority is a certified food protection manager.
- The certification is from a program accredited to the Conference for Food Protection's standards.
- Employees are trained in food safety and food allergy awareness for their duties.
- Exempt from the manager rule: only non-TCS food, or only reheating and cold holding commercially cooked TCS food.
- Exempt establishments can't cool TCS food.
- The person in charge shows knowledge: no priority violations, a manager certificate, or correct answers.
- TaroStack keeps the batch records and sign-offs an inspector reads; it doesn't track certificates. More below.
The rules
| Rule | What 12VAC5-421 says |
|---|---|
| Food handler card | None required |
| Certified manager | At least one employee with supervisory and management responsibility and authority over food preparation and service (section 55) |
| The certification | A program listed by a Conference for Food Protection-recognized accrediting agency (section 65) |
| Exempt | Only non-TCS food; or reheating and cold holding commercially processed, fully cooked TCS food; no cooling of TCS food (section 55) |
| Person in charge | Shows knowledge by no priority violations, a manager certification, or correct answers to the inspector's questions (section 60) |
| Training | Employees properly trained in food safety, including food allergy awareness, for their duties (section 70) |
| Allergy awareness | Knowing the major food allergens and the symptoms a sensitive person can have (section 70) |
The rules are 12VAC5-421-55, -60 and -70 of the Virginia Food Regulations; your local health department permits and inspects. This is general information, not legal advice.
The training duty
The person in charge makes sure each employee is trained in food safety as it relates to their job, and that includes food allergy awareness: which foods are the major allergens, and the symptoms an allergic reaction can cause. The rule doesn't name a course, so a business can use an accredited food handler course, its own training, or both, and a dated record of who was trained shows the inspector it happened. How allergens are tracked in recipes is in allergen matrix template, and how a home kitchen sells in Virginia instead in Virginia cottage food laws.
An example: a tamale kitchen
Rocktown Tamales, the made-up tamale kitchen in Harrisonburg, Virginia, I use in these examples, now cooks in its own 600 square foot kitchen and sells hot tamales over a counter, with frozen dozens to take home:
| Person | Role | Certificate or training | Date | Status on October 16, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Certified manager, person in charge days | Certified food protection manager | January 22, 2024 | Current to January 22, 2029 |
| Lead cook | Person in charge, evenings | Certified food protection manager | December 6, 2021 | Expires December 6, 2026 |
| Masa cook | Food employee | Employer training | August 11, 2025 | On file |
| Counter | Food employee | Employer training | March 2, 2026 | On file |
| Counter, new | Food employee | None | None on file |
The owner's certificate meets the manager rule; the lead cook's makes the evenings easy at inspection, and it's renewed before December. The new counter hire is trained before their first shift, including which tamales contain pork lard and which contain cheese, because customers ask. How the tamales are cooled and logged is in temperature log template.
Get the roster
Download the Virginia food safety roster. One sheet: each person, their role, the certificate or training they hold and the date; the expiry, 5 years for the manager certificate and 3 for a food handler course, and the status fill in, red when expired, with a count of current certified managers. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The manager certificate expires on its own date, and every new hire needs food safety and allergy training before they handle food. A certificate on the wall doesn't show who was trained last week, or on what.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack doesn't track food safety certificates. It keeps the production records an inspector reads alongside them.
Batch records with sign-off. Printable batch-record forms carry your own checklist fields and a sign-off, so a batch of tamales' cooling check, and who did it, is on the record.
Recipes with their ingredients. Each tamale is a recipe with its sub-recipes, the masa and the filling, so what's in it is written down, not remembered.
Lots and expiry. Each batch of frozen tamales gets a lot with its production and best-before dates, and first-expired-first-out is the default.
| The job | Clipboard | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Who signed off a batch | Initials on paper | A sign-off on the batch record |
| What's in each tamale | Remembered | The recipe and its sub-recipes |
| Which frozen dozens go first | Remembered | First-expired-first-out |
Lots, batches and recipes are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.