RSPH Level 3 Food Safety for Food Manufacturing is an Ofqual-regulated qualification (number 603/0680/4) issued by the Royal Society for Public Health. It is the supervisor-level qualification expected of team leaders, shift supervisors, line managers, internal auditors, technical assistants and HACCP team members in food and drink production.

UK food safety law requires those responsible for HACCP-based procedures to be trained to a level appropriate to their role under Retained Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. BRCGS, SALSA and retailer codes of practice expect documented supervisor-level training for line managers and HACCP team members, and an Ofqual-regulated Level 3 qualification is what auditors and Environmental Health Officers most commonly accept as evidence.

The Manufacturing pathway is written around production environments — process flow, segregation, low/high-care and high-risk controls, prerequisite programmes, allergen segregation, foreign body management, CCP monitoring, internal auditing and root cause analysis. The Catering version is built around food service operations and the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. Choose the pathway that matches your site so the worked examples and the exam land for your team.

Kitchen Tonic delivers Level 3 Manufacturing in three formats: a live webinar via Google Meet, an in-house session at your factory, or a scheduled public classroom course. The qualification carries 26 guided learning hours, typically run across 2 to 3 training days, and finishes with the official RSPH-supplied 45-question multiple-choice exam under invigilation.

The official RSPH specification covers food safety law and supervisor responsibilities in manufacturing, HACCP principles and HACCP-based food safety management, prerequisite programmes, microbiological, chemical, physical and allergenic hazards, temperature control across the cold chain, cleaning and disinfection validation, foreign body controls and detection, supplier assurance, internal auditing, supervising training, corrective action and due diligence records.

Assessment is a 90-minute multiple-choice paper with 45 questions, supplied and marked against the RSPH standard. The qualification is graded Pass or Distinction — Pass is 30 out of 45, Distinction is 38 out of 45. The exam is sat at the end of the final training day under invigilation by Kitchen Tonic, and certificates are issued directly by RSPH on successful completion.

There is no statutory expiry date for food safety training in the UK, but BRCGS, SALSA and most retailer codes of practice expect supervisor-level refresher training every 3 years. Auditors will typically flag training records older than that as a finding at site visits.

Level 3 is for supervisors and HACCP team members running food safety on the floor day to day. Level 4 (Managing Food Safety and Hygiene — Manufacturing) is the senior-manager qualification for technical managers, quality managers, factory managers, HACCP leads and site auditors — it goes further into HACCP plan design and validation, food safety culture, supplier assurance, due diligence and managing a food safety management system across a manufacturing site.