Roanoke, VA Public Health Rules: Food Handler Certification (2026)

City Code § 13-17 states plainly that the proprietors or managers and all employees of restaurants shall attend any and all schools or lectures conducted by the city for the edification of food handlers. The requirement sits inside Article II of Chapter 13, the same article that makes restaurant operation permit-dependent: § 13-15 makes it unlawful to operate a restaurant without an unrevoked permit from the director of health posted in a conspicuous place, and no business license can be issued until that permit is presented.

The director of health enforces both the training duty and the permit through the inspection process in § 13-20: inspections happen as often as the director deems necessary, one copy of each report stays with the restaurant, and if a second inspection finds the same sanitation item still violated, the operator gets written notice of a correction deadline before the city moves to close the establishment. Personnel compliance connects to the reporting duty in § 13-18, which requires the owner, manager or an affected employee to notify the director of health immediately if the manager, an employee, or a household member of either contracts an infectious or communicable disease, develops a fever, a skin eruption, a cough lasting more than three weeks, or another suspicious symptom, and holds manager and employee jointly and severally liable if that notice is not given.

Because § 13-17 sets no fixed schedule, calendar or private certification vendor, the training runs through the city's own health department sessions rather than a third-party card program, and the ordinance's force comes from tying attendance to the permit that keeps a restaurant licensed to operate at all.