Does ServSafe "Suck"?

There seems to be a lot of angst in the food service industry over ServSafe.  A quick google search revealed this little gem of streaming consciousness from a personal blog:

servsafe sucks. i just lost a full day that i'll never get back. hopefully i'll get paid for it though.

As someone who has taken several ServSafe exams, I agree that it can at times be pretty...let's just say painful.  It's not that I have an aversion to exams - it is really that the process is so entirely lame.  For anyone that has not had the pleasure of taking this exam, here is how it works:

1. Take an entire day off work or away from your personal life
2. Sit through an all day class while an instructor crams information down your throat in hopes that you can keep it down just long enough to pass a test.  Once the test is over you, of course, forget everything you just 'learned'
3. Spend the entire class trying to memorize inane facts instead of spending time to think critically about how you can impact food safety in your food service environment
4. Take a hasty test and wait weeks before finding out if you scored high enough to avoid having to do the whole thing all over again

So yes, I would have to agree that this process is pretty terrible.  What's more: ServSafe's business model actually needs to operate this way to make money.  We'll explore ServSafe's business model in a later article, but for now just trust that ServSafe actually likes this model.


Fortunately, there is a better way to prepare for the food safety test than sitting in an all day ServSafe class: take an online study course.  An online course allows you to study in your spare time from the comfort of home while also allowing you to review the content as much as you want so that you can actually retain it.   


Before you jump right in though, understand that you should not take an online class through ServSafe unless you would like to develop severe hypertension. While ServSafe does offer an online course they do not offer an online test, so you still have to find a local proctor to administer the exam for you.  Local proctors don't like to give 'just an exam' because they make money when you sit for an entire class.  So if you train online with ServSafe you almost always then have to sit through a class anyway just to take the test.  It's as if they are promoting food safety by encouraging food service workers to hurl themselves off of tall buildings.


Your best option is to take an online course with one of the handful of online providers that show up through a quick google search.  Many of them have relationships with testing centers that allow you to take the test almost any day of the week, so you are no longer at the will and mercy of a ServSafe proctor.  A friend of mine recently signed up for an online food safety course through www.foodsafetyadmin.com, and he was very impressed by the ease and convenience of it.  If you are in need of a ServSafe certification I would definitely recommend this approach.  Unless you enjoy pain and misery.  Then you should go with a local ServSafe class.