Hercules, CA Public Health Rules: Food Handler Certification (2026)

Section 5-3.208 requires that 'every person working or handling food in any food handling establishment, with or without pay, shall secure a health permit from the Health Officer within thirty (30) days of first employment in the City.' The permit is not a food-safety class certificate; it 'shall be the negative report of the County Health Department chest x-ray or a letter from the Health Officer to the same effect,' valid for two years from issuance, after which it must be replaced before it expires. The worker must keep the permit 'in the possession of such person during working hours and shall be readily available for inspection by the Health Officer.'

The duty runs both ways. Sec. 5-3.209 makes it 'the duty of each manager, operator or owner of any food handling establishment to employ only persons having a valid health permit,' so an employer who keeps an unpermitted worker on the line is itself violating the Chapter, independent of any citation against the employee. Sec. 5-3.210 clarifies that even an activity exempt from the establishment permit or fee under this Chapter still owes full compliance with the Chapter's sanitary requirements, so the individual health-permit duty isn't waived just because the business itself qualifies for a permit exemption. The Health Officer administers this alongside the establishment-level permit set out in Sec. 5-3.201, which separately requires every food handling establishment to hold its own annual permit, but Sec. 5-3.208 is the individual worker's obligation.