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

Chapter 8.28 of the San Jacinto Municipal Code exists to prevent the spread of infectious disease and to hold all food handlers in the city to a uniform standard through examination (§ 8.28.010). A food worker's certificate is a statement issued by the health officer, meaning the health officer of the county of Riverside or a designee, certifying the person is free from active communicable tuberculosis and has shown competency in food sanitation principles and practices (§ 8.28.020).

Section 8.28.040 bars anyone from working in any job that handles food, drink or material intended for human consumption, or the dishes and articles used to prepare or serve it, without holding and producing the certificate. It also bars owners, managers and agents from retaining a worker who lacks one. Section 8.28.050 limits an employer to retaining an uncertified worker no longer than three weeks, and not at all if the person is known or reasonably believed to have active communicable tuberculosis.

To apply, a worker files with the health officer and pays a nonrefundable $5 fee; students sixteen or older in school food operations pay nothing (§ 8.28.070). Qualifying takes a tuberculosis-free certification and a passing exam on the food worker's manual (§ 8.28.080). The certificate lists number, name, home address, expiration date and signature, and expires one year after issue; a temporary certificate for up to three months can be issued while health is investigated (§ 8.28.090). A duplicate costs $1.00 (§ 8.28.100).

Employers must keep every employee's certificate on continuous display with a current list of employees, and return unexpired certificates when employment ends (§ 8.28.130). Exemptions in § 8.28.060 cover domestic or household work, temporary, occasional or intermittent functions of bona fide religious, charitable or public service organizations, and school food operations by students under sixteen. Food establishments themselves fall under Riverside County Ordinance 492, adopted by § 8.24.010.