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

Ontario does not run its own separate food-worker exam program. Instead, Sec. 01 of the Municipal Code adopts by reference San Bernardino County Ordinance No. 0213B of that code, establishing training, testing and certification of worker competency in food industry sanitation procedures. The City Clerk keeps three copies of the county ordinance on file for public inspection, and it is incorporated into Ontario's own code as though printed there in full, subject to the amendments in Chapter 11 itself. Sec. 02 then converts the county text into a city rule: wherever County Ordinance No.

1964 says "County" or "County of San Bernardino," the words "City" or "City of Ontario" are substituted, so the certification duty binds food workers within Ontario the same as it would anywhere else in the unincorporated county. The section carves out one exception to that substitution: certificates are still issued by, and administrative enforcement proceedings are still conducted by, the County's Department of Environmental Health Services, not a city department, and all fees and costs for training, testing and certification are paid to that County department.

Both sections trace to Section 1 of Ordinance 1869, effective October 2, 1975, which is the ordinance that first brought the county certification scheme into Ontario's own code.