Study guide
The complete syllabus, taught chapter by chapter.
Single-user licence. You may print this file and write on it. You may not redistribute, resell or post it. © Sitonce 2026.
Study guide, 2026 edition.
Copyright © 2026 Sitonce. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by the single-user licence above.
Preface
The complete syllabus for the Certified Food Protection Manager (ANAB-CFP accredited). Read all 8 chapters and you have been taught every one of the 32 subtopics the examiner tests.
The next chapter, The exam at a glance, is what makes the rest of this book useful. It says how many questions each topic carries, and the study plan on the page after converts those weights into hours. Two topics carry 29 of 80 marks between them; the lightest carries 3. Time spent should follow that, not the order the chapters happen to be printed in.
Once you have read a chapter, drill on it. 400 practice questions live on the Sitonce website (sitonce.com). They adapt to what you keep getting wrong, keep a notebook of your own mistakes, and explain each miss against the option you actually chose. That adaptation is where the website earns its place; a paper file cannot do it.
When you have worked through the chapters and the practice questions, sit the five mock papers that ship alongside this book. Each carries its answer key at the back of the same file. Sit them the way you will sit the real one - a mock done in pieces over three evenings measures your notes, not your recall.
The exam at a glance
Everything about the exam itself: what it is, how it runs, what it costs, and how it is scored. Read this before you plan your revision.
| Authority | Conference for Food Protection (CFP) sets the accreditation standard; ANAB accredits the exam providers; state and local health departments accept the resulting certificate |
|---|---|
| Delivered by | Multiple accredited providers - National Registry (NRFSP), Prometric, 360training Learn2Serve, StateFoodSafety, Always Food Safe |
| Format | Multiple choice, proctored, closed book. Available at test centres and online with remote proctoring, depending on provider |
| Language | English and Spanish are standard across providers; several offer more |
| Questions | 80 |
| Time | 120 minutes |
| Sittings | On demand, through any ANAB-accredited provider |
| Fee | USD 36 - 65 exam only (retake about USD 60) |
| Results | - |
| Validity | Five years; some jurisdictions and employers accept a shorter period |
| Eligibility | None. Anyone may sit the examination regardless of education, background or experience. |
85% is our readiness target, not a published pass mark.
This exam is scored on a scale, not on a raw count, so nobody outside the exam board knows exactly how many correct answers pass. 68 is our readiness target and it sits deliberately above where we think the line is. Clearing it is a good sign. It is not a guarantee.
The paper is drawn to fixed weights per topic. This is the arithmetic behind the study plan on the next page:
| Ch. | Topic | Marks | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preventing Contamination and Cross-Contamination | 15 | 19% |
| 2 | Ensuring Personal Hygiene and Employee Health | 14 | 18% |
| 3 | Actively Managing Controls in a Food Establishment | 13 | 16% |
| 4 | Ensuring Product Time and Temperature | 11 | 14% |
| 5 | Monitoring the Flow of Foods | 10 | 13% |
| 6 | Conducting Cleaning and Sanitizing | 9 | 11% |
| 7 | Managing the Physical Facility Design and Maintenance | 5 | 6% |
| 8 | Preventing and Controlling Pests | 3 | 4% |
| Total | 80 | 100% |
Study plan
The commonest wrong strategy is to spend equal time on every chapter. The paper is not weighted equally; the plan should not be either. The share column below is what matters; the hours column applies a 40-hour reference total for scale.
| Ch. | Chapter | Weight | of 40 h |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preventing Contamination and Cross-Contamination | 19% | 8 h |
| 2 | Ensuring Personal Hygiene and Employee Health | 18% | 7 h |
| 3 | Actively Managing Controls in a Food Establishment | 16% | 7 h |
| 4 | Ensuring Product Time and Temperature | 14% | 6 h |
| 5 | Monitoring the Flow of Foods | 13% | 5 h |
| 6 | Conducting Cleaning and Sanitizing | 11% | 5 h |
| 7 | Managing the Physical Facility Design and Maintenance | 6% | 3 h |
| 8 | Preventing and Controlling Pests | 4% | 2 h |
| Total | 100% | 40 h |
Whatever total time you decide on for this paper, allocate this share of it to each chapter. Pick the total from your own baseline: how many marks you dropped the first time you attempted a mock, and how many hours a week you can give it.
Chapter 1
The largest area on the paper at 15 of 80 items. Separation, storage, bare hands, gloves, display, waste and chemicals - the whole of what keeps something out of food that should not be in it.
By the end of this chapter you will be able to explain:
Food Manager: the whole syllabus taught, the questions that test it, 5 timed mocks, and all 6 PDFs to print.