As the industry faces ongoing challenges with COVID-19, National Registry of Food Safety Professionals (NRFSP) remains dedicated to helping everyone stay safe. Food safety and education are more critical than ever before. The work that instructors and test administrators do has never been more vital.
We know that you have questions about how to keep students safe in the classroom, how you can use technology to continue teaching, and how exams and exam results will be affected. We have tried to answer the most frequently asked questions below. If you have other questions, please use online chat or text to talk to our Customer Care team.
Customer Care Notifications
Customer Care Hours
Our Customer Care team is available Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT. For faster service, we encourage you to email or chat with us.
Exam grading
NRSFP is doing everything we can to maintain the service levels that you have come to expect. Due to delays in shipping that are beyond our control and to ensure the safety of our staff at this time, your exam results may be delayed. We continue to monitor state and local guidance and requirements that may impact our operations and our service levels.
Rescheduling/Cancelling Exam Administrations
We have extended our deadline for rescheduling exam orders. Exam materials for a cancelled standard exam may be kept for up to 90 days from the date of the originally scheduled exam. The exam must be rescheduled within that 90-day timeframe.
Exams for cancelled standard exam orders that will not be rescheduled within 90 days can be returned as usual.
Please contact our Accreditation department at examsecurity@nrfsp.com if you need to reschedule exam orders. Exam orders for rescheduled exam dates must be maintained in secure locations by Test Administrators until they are used or returned.
Exam Location Procedures
Prior to Exam Attendance
Call and speak to each Exam Site attendee directly at least 2 days prior to the scheduled exam date to confirm they have not experienced COVID-19 symptoms prior to attending the exam session. If an Exam Site attendee answers “yes” to any one of these questions, ask them to reschedule to another exam 14 days or more later as an additional safety measure to other attendees:
- Do you have a fever (greater than 100.4 F or 38.0 C) OR symptoms of lower respiratory illness such as cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or sore throat?
- Have you traveled internationally within the last month or recently traveled to an area with known local spread of COVID-19?
- Have you come into close contact (within 6 feet) with someone who has had symptoms such as fever, lower respiratory illness such as cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing or sore throat in the last 14 days?
Room Set-up
- Have approved sanitary wipes and boxes of tissues available for your exam.
- Examinees should receive their own set of classroom material.
- Require Examinees to bring their own pencils for exams.
- Stagger seating as best as possible to maintain a distance of 6’ per the social distancing guidelines.
- CDC recommends wearing face coverings in public settings.
- Assure that, a Test Administrator/Proctor, you are able to monitor the exam from a distance of 6’ away from examinees. If needed, use tape to show what a distance of 6ft is.
- Have a place for examinees to put unauthorized belongings where they will not touch other examinee’s belongings, for anyone that brings more than the required materials.
- If water is provided, use bottled water instead of open containers.
Sanitation
- If you currently use a third-party location to host your exam administration, have discussions with the facilities management as to how they are maintaining proper safety and sanitation practices so your exam site is prepared for your arrival for every exam session.
- If your exam administrations are in facilities that you oversee, use proper washing and sanitizing techniques prior to and between each session. This may require additional time to assure that table, chairs, entry doors and all equipment are properly wiped and sanitized before each exam.
Examination Procedures
We recommend taking these additional steps maintain proper safety and sanitation practices during the examination:
- Require examinees to bring their own pencils, as reusing pencils can prompt an unsafe opportunity.
- CDC recommends wearing face coverings in public settings.
- Have exams laid out on tables/desks prior to examinee arrival. Wear surgical gloves as you distribute exams and set up the exam location. Do not touch your face.
- Pre-print examinees names on paper and place the paper with their names on a check-in table. Printed names should be separated to prevent one examinee touching another examinee’s paper.
- Instruct examinees to enter the location one at a time, maintaining a distance of at least 6ft from other examinees. If needed, use tape to show what a distance of 6ft is.
- Instruct each examinee to locate their nametag on the table in front of their designated seat and place their ID next to their nametag.
- Once all examinees are seated, using surgical gloves verify the examinees IDs and make note of any absent examinees prior to providing exam instructions and beginning the exam.
- Maintain your distance throughout exam, monitoring the exam administration at no closer than within the 6ft social distance space.
- Examinees should be instructed to seal their exam booklet in the provided white windowed envelope, and placing their completed answer sheet on top after completing the exam. They should be instructed to raise their hand once they have completed this procedure.
- Examinees should leave their exam materials at their seat, then proceed to retrieve any personal belongings and leave the location. Only allow one person to leave the location at a time, always maintaining a 6ft distance.
- Once all examinees have completed the exam and left, collect the exam materials and place in packaging to return to National Registry for Food Safety Professionals for scoring.
- Only after all materials are packaged, should you remove the gloves, wash, and sanitize your hands.
Additional FAQs
How can I best ensure the safety and sanitization in an exam site?
- Official guidance for operations during the COVID-19 outbreak continues to evolve.
- The latest Federal information regarding the coronavirus may be found at restaurant.org/COVID19. Please refer to your state and local jurisdictions for additional requirements.
Can the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals Food Safety Manager Certification Exam be proctored virtually?
At this time, due to requirements from the American National Standards Institute – Conference for Food Protection (ANSI-CFP) for a secure and accredited exam, the NRFSP Manager Certification Exam can only be administered in person. Please see those instructions. Virtual proctoring is an exam security violation and a violation of copyright policy.
Can any National Registry of Food Safety Professionals Exams be proctored virtually?
If you’re administering a HACCP or non-accredited Food Handler exam, you may use virtual proctoring services such as Zoom, Webex, Skype, etc. to administer an exam to one examinee at a time. You will need to ensure the exam site conforms to the usual exam site locations and have the examinee show you:
- the location is conducive to exam testing with no distractions, including additional people within the space.
- all 4 walls of their testing room.
- a view of the surface the computer is on, as well as, around and under the surface.
- a full view of your examinee and then a close up of their ID to confirm identity.
- the computer screen so the examinee is not using another web browser or web application during the exam.
- there is no access to outside materials that could be conducive to cheating or allows for resources to be used to assist the examinee during the exam.
- that audio is enabled to ensure there are no 3rdparties in the room or inappropriate distractions during the examination.
How many people can I administer an exam for at one time in light of appropriate safety measures for coronavirus?
Follow local guidance/requirements related to group gatherings. Please also limit the exam session to the number of examinees you can safely proctor at 6ft apart at the location. CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings.
I have contracted COVID-19 or been in contact with someone that has COVID-19 and need to return my exam order for grading or canceling. What should I do?
- Seek medical attention.
- Please contact Customer Service at customerservice@nrfsp.com to cancel all future exam administrations and follow steps 3-7.
- Inform students/examinees of your COVID-19 diagnosis/exposure, so they can seek medical attention.
- Complete an Incident Report to include in with the exam package.
- Contact Accreditation at examsecurity@nrfsp.com with the notification of your diagnosis/exposure, as well as the exam order and exam booklet numbers in your possession.
- Maintain all exam materials/packages in a secure area, sealed, quarantined and ready to be returned after five (5) consecutive days.
- After five (5) consecutive days where the exam materials have not been handled by any confirmed infected or exposed individual, please have an uninfected/unexposed associate thoroughly clean the return exam envelope, using the guidance provided in the CDC Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Recommendations document, prior to returning the package. If an uninfected/unexposed associate is not available, you may return the exam package(s), after being cleared of COVID-19 by a healthcare professional.
Last updated: July 10, 2020