New Braunfels, TX Public Health Rules: Food Handler Certification (2026)

Under Sec. 62-96, the city splits food handlers into two classes: professional food handlers, who receive payment, and volunteer food handlers, who serve a benevolent or nonprofit organization without pay. Every professional food handler, including supervisors, owners, dishwashers, busboys, cashiers, butchers, and bakers, must obtain a food handler's certificate before touching food meant for public consumption. To qualify, the applicant attends and demonstrates knowledge from a course covering personal hygiene, food-service sanitation, and prevention of food-borne illness; the local health authority designs a minimum two-hour workshop to deliver that training.

Once issued, the certificate is valid for two years before it must be renewed through the same course. Volunteer food handlers skip the certificate, but the event's chairperson receives a sanitation information packet at the time of licensing, must post the local health authority's rules conspicuously at the event site, and each volunteer is expected to follow those posted rules in practice. 00 administrative charge for issuing the two-year professional certificate, with no charge for volunteers working on a non-continuing basis for a nonprofit or civic group.

The local health authority or a designated representative is responsible both for enforcing Sec. 62-96 and for preparing the required workshop. Ord. No. 2024-65 (Sept. 9, 2024) most recently amended this section.