Does New Hampshire Require a Food Handler Card?

New Hampshire does not require an individual statewide food handler card.

No statewide employee food-handler card; NH instead requires each licensed establishment’s Person-in-Charge to be a Certified Food Protection Manager — a manager-level, one-per-establishment credential.

What it’s called

New Hampshire requires no individual food handler card. Statewide, the food-safety duty falls on the establishment instead — it must have a Person-in-Charge. “Food handler license,” “food handlers permit,” “food safety certificate” and “food handler card” are common searches, but New Hampshire issues no such individual credential. The credential many searchers have in mind — the food-MANAGER certification (a Certified Food Protection Manager, often earned through ServSafe Manager) — is a separate, establishment-level qualification, not an individual handler card.

What New Hampshire requires instead

No individual food handler/employee is required by New Hampshire state law to hold a food-handler card. Statewide, each licensed food establishment must have a Person in Charge (PIC) who is a Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM); establishments with 5 or fewer food employees on duty need only one available CFPM on staff (not necessarily present), and a newly licensed establishment must have a CFPM within 45 days of its initial licensing inspection. This is a manager-level, one-per-establishment requirement — not an every-employee handler card. (Employees do complete an Employee Health Reporting Agreement per He-P 2307 / Food Code, but that is not a card or certification.)

Who does NOT need this — exemptions

New Hampshire issues no employee food handler card, so no food employee needs one - and NH DHHS is explicit that a Food Handler Certification does not even satisfy the credential NH does require (CFPM FAQ Q18: “No, the course needs to be one [of] the accredited programs… it shall be specific to a manager and include a proctored exam”). The exemptions below are from that credential: the Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) requirement on the Person in Charge.

ESTABLISHMENT CATEGORIES EXEMPT FROM THE CFPM REQUIREMENT (NH DHHS CFPM FAQ Q3, verbatim list): (1) Category A-1, food processing plants which commercially process 100,000 packages of food or more per year; (2) C-5, food processing plants processing less than 100,000 packages of TCS food per year; (3) C-6, cold storage or refrigerating warehouse; (4) D-4, retail food stores that allow self-service of food, including coffee, hot dogs, or soft drinks; (5) D-6, servicing areas; (6) E-1, bed and breakfasts; (7) E-3, lodging facilities serving continental breakfasts; (8) F-1, home delivery services of packaged frozen food; (9) F-2, pushcarts and other mobile food units, including those serving packaged food and non-TCS unwrapped foods only; (10) F-3, retail food stores with no food preparation areas; (11) F-4, wholesalers/distributors of TCS food; (12) F-5, on-site vending machines which serve TCS food; (13) F-6, bakeries which do not serve TCS food and have no seats; (14) G-1, bars/lounges without a food preparation area; (15) G-2, arena/theater concessions serving non-TCS food; (16) G-3, retail food stores serving pre-packaged ice cream; (17) G-7, sellers of pre-packaged frozen meat or poultry processed in a USDA-inspected plant; (18) G-8, food processing plants that manufacture or package non-TCS food; and (19) Category F-7, farm store (He-P 2303.02(a)).

UNLICENSED, SO THE CFPM REQUIREMENT DOES NOT APPLY AT ALL (FAQ Q17): “occasional” food service establishments - food served or provided to the public no more than 4 days during a 30-day period (any part of a day counts as a full day) - and “temporary” food service establishments - operating at a fixed location for not more than 2 weeks in connection with a fair, carnival, circus, public exhibition or similar transitory gathering - “are exempt from a food service license by the State of New Hampshire,” and therefore “licensing requirements and regulation including the CFPM requirement, do not apply.”

CFPM REQUIRED BUT NEED NOT BE PRESENT (FAQ Q4/Q10): an establishment with at least one CFPM on staff need not have the CFPM present when no food preparation is taking place, or when food preparation is limited to reheating commercially prepared food or ready-to-eat food; and an establishment having 5 food employees or less on duty needs only one CFPM on staff who is “available, although not required to be present,” during all hours of operation (Q9: a district or regional supervisor who is a CFPM may serve as that available CFPM). Q16: a licensed caterer needs no CFPM at an off-site event if no food preparation takes place at the event. Q8: the owner does not have to be the CFPM.

COMMONLY ASSUMED EXEMPT BUT NOT: an establishment exempt from the CFPM requirement STILL must have a Person in Charge during all hours of operation (FAQ Q7) - the exemption is from the manager CERTIFICATION, not from having a PIC. NH’s 15 self-inspecting cities/towns (Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester, Salem) may set their own terms; DHHS directs operators there to consult the local authority (FAQ Q15), so an exemption above is not guaranteed to hold in those jurisdictions. Source: NH DHHS Food Protection Section, Certified Food Protection Manager FAQ.

Local requirements

New Hampshire has 15 self-inspecting cities/towns (Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester, Salem) that administer their own food-safety programs; NH DHHS directs operators in those jurisdictions to consult the local authority. Their personnel requirement centers on the CFPM (manager) certification, not an individual employee handler card — no self-inspecting town was verified from an official source to mandate an every-employee food-handler card.

Where to check

No state food-handler card exists, so there is no card-issuing authority. New Hampshire’s food-safety regulator is the NH DHHS Food Protection Section (Concord). The credential NH actually mandates — the Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) — is issued not by the state but by third-party programs accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and recognized by the Conference for Food Protection (CFP).