What is the primary purpose of food safety certification?

The primary purpose of food safety certification is to ensure that food handlers understand and follow proper food safety practices. This involves training individuals to recognize and manage potential hazards that can lead to foodborne illnesses, ensuring that food is prepared, stored, and served in a safe manner. Such certification helps establish a standard of knowledge and competence in safe food handling, which is crucial for protecting public health.

While understanding nutrition and guaranteeing food quality are important aspects of the food industry, they do not specifically address the fundamental practices necessary to prevent contamination and ensure food safety. Regulating food prices falls outside the scope of food safety certification, which primarily focuses on the practices that keep food safe for consumption rather than economic factors.