Hygiene instructions online according to § 43 IfSG: initial instruction, repetition and proof

According to Section 43 Paragraph 1 of the Infection Protection Act (IfSG), people who come into contact with perishable food on a commercial basis are only allowed to start working after they have received initial instructions from the responsible health authority and have received a written confirmation of the instructions. Several federal states, including Berlin, Bavaria and Hamburg, have accepted a fully digital form of initial instruction via video call since 2022, while other states continue to require face-to-face instruction. Anyone who chooses the online route must check whether the health authority at the place of employment recognises this format, because recognition depends on the place of work, not on the place of residence of the person being taught. This separation is one of the most common causes of invalid certificates.

This article classifies online hygiene instructions legally, describes the differences between official initial instructions and operational follow-up instructions in accordance with Section 43 Paragraph 4 IfSG, lists the pitfalls for temporary and seasonal workers and shows how the evidence must be kept in the company. At the end, you will learn how CIVAC, as a compliance platform and officer-as-a-service, maps the entire path from the initial instruction to the annual follow-up instruction in a verifiable workspace and how you can lead 50 or 2,000 employees cleanly through the year without Excel lists. We address food production, gastronomy, catering, communal catering and care facilities because all four sectors have the same obligations.

§ 43 Paragraph 1 IfSG names four facts that trigger instruction: the production, treatment and marketing of certain foods, activities in the kitchens of restaurants and communal catering establishments, and working with dishwashing and cutlery in such establishments. The appendix to Section 42 IfSG lists the foods covered, including meat, poultry, milk, fish, baked goods with underbaked fillings, infant and toddler food and ice cream. Anyone who only handles packaged food without opening the packaging is not subject to the obligation to provide instructions. This distinction is relevant in retail.

The initial instruction must be given before you start work for the first time; the certificate must not be older than three months when you start work. This three-month period results from Section 43 Paragraph 1 Sentence 2 IfSG and is strictly checked by the health authorities. According to paragraph 4, the employer must repeat the instructions about the activity bans and obligations mentioned in paragraph 1 after starting the activity and annually thereafter. This operational repetition obligation must be separated from the official initial instruction and is often confused. Anyone who has appointed a hygiene representative typically delegates the follow-up instructions to him, but responsibility remains with the entrepreneur in accordance with Section 130 OWiG. According to Section 73 IfSG, violations of the obligation to provide instructions or documentation result in fines of up to 25,000 euros per individual violation; in repeated cases, health authorities expect cumulative notices across several employees. Practice shows that complaints rarely remain isolated, but rather trigger a tighter control regime, which burdens the company for months and creates additional effort for follow-up instructions and obtaining evidence.

Each federal state regulates the form of initial instruction independently as part of administrative practice; there is no uniform nationwide requirement. Since February 2022, Berlin has been offering a comprehensive online procedure via the service portal of the State Office for Health and Social Affairs. Instruction is provided via moderated video call with photo ID checks and a written knowledge test. Bavaria has introduced the procedure through the municipal health authorities; a smartphone with a camera is sufficient here. Hamburg, Bremen and parts of North Rhine-Westphalia also accept digital initial instruction; in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, face-to-face instruction continues to predominate. Baden-Württemberg has been working on a uniform online procedure since 2024, but it is being rolled out differently depending on the region.

The decisive factor is not the place of residence of the person to be instructed, but the place of later activity. Anyone who lives in Brandenburg but will work in a restaurant in Berlin must use the Berlin authorities' practice and can take advantage of the Berlin online instructions. Private providers who sell online courses with a subsequent certificate do not replace the official instructions, but at best cover the annual follow-up instructions. This separation is relevant in everyday operations because a booking with the wrong provider leads to an invalid initial instruction and the employee is not allowed to start the activity. The costs for the official initial instruction range between 16 and 35 euros depending on the federal state; in Berlin the appointment is often available within five working days; in rural districts there can be waiting times of three to six weeks. CIVAC maintains an overview of the current status for each federal state in the workspace and updates it quarterly. Anyone who operates several locations must manage the procedures regionally.

The most important distinction in everyday life concerns the question of which instruction the health authority itself provides and which the employer provides. The initial instruction in accordance with Section 43 Paragraph 1 IfSG is provided exclusively by the health department or by doctors commissioned by it. It happens once in a person's life and is documented by a numbered certificate that remains valid indefinitely as long as the activity within the scope of § 43 IfSG is not interrupted for longer than three months. Longer interruptions lead to a new obligation to provide initial instruction.

The subsequent instruction in accordance with Section 43 Paragraph 4 IfSG, however, is the responsibility of the employer. It must take place after the start of the activity and annually thereafter; a specific form is not required. In-person training by the hygiene officer, online modules with a subsequent test or a hybrid format are common. In terms of content, the follow-up instructions must cover the activity bans according to Section 42 IfSG, the notification and precautionary obligations as well as the relevant provisions of the Food Hygiene Ordinance (LMHV) and Regulation (EC) 852/2004. Participation must be documented in writing or electronically; usual content is the date, content, duration, signature or digital signature of the person participating as well as the name and position of the instructor. The appointment certificate, signed, filed, verifiable. According to Section 43 Paragraph 5 IfSG, the evidence must be kept available in the company and presented to the health authority upon request. Violations can be punished with a fine in accordance with Section 73 Paragraph 1 Number 6 IfSG. During inspections, we regularly experience that follow-up instructions have taken place, but the evidence cannot be found. For the health department, this is a violation like failure to provide instructions.

The documentation requirement according to Section 43 Paragraph 5 IfSG is specific: In the company, the certificate of the initial instruction and proof of the last follow-up instruction must be available for each affected person. In administrative practice, the period of two years refers to the minimum duration of the retention obligation after termination of the employment relationship. In practice, we recommend retention for at least three years in order to cover delayed official controls. In the case of mixed situations involving income tax and social security law, the longer deadlines in accordance with Section 147 AO apply in parallel.

An audit-proof proof contains five elements: name and date of birth of the person instructed, date and content of the instruction, name and function of the instructor, signature or digital signature of the person instructed and a note about the information materials handed out such as information sheets or hygiene plans. In the case of purely digital instructions, the identity of the person taking part must be clearly established; in the opinion of several state authorities, a mere checkmark on the screen is not enough. Qualified electronic signatures in accordance with the eIDAS regulation or prior identification via ID card are accepted. The auditor calls, the evidence is ready. CIVAC maps the follow-up instruction in the workspace as a recurring task for each employee, stores the templates for content, test and confirmation of participation and automatically sends reminders 30, 14 and 7 days before the due date. The certificate of initial official instruction is attached as a scan, so that a complete file can be accessed from the system for each person in the event of an unannounced visit to the health department. You can find an overview of the CIVAC hygiene officer role on the dedicated role page. Storage is carried out centrally, access rights are limited to branch management, hygiene officers and management, so that personal data protection in accordance with Art. 32 GDPR is complied with.

Three constellations generate the most complaints during hygiene controls. First: temporary help without initial instruction. Anyone who books a weekend assignment in catering falls entirely under Section 43 IfSG; short-term work does not exempt from the obligation. Second: expired three-month period. The certificate must not be older than three months when you start working; a two-year-old certificate from a previous job is valid if employment in a corresponding area was not interrupted for longer than three months. Third: career changers who have never worked in the food sector and whose certificate comes from a student job ten years ago, but whose employment has since been suspended for more than three months. These three constellations appear in almost every routine inspection.

The geographical component is also underestimated: Anyone who works in a chain with locations in several federal states only needs an initial instruction that applies nationwide. The follow-up instructions, however, are location-specific because, among other things, they refer to the company hygiene plans in accordance with Section 4 LMHV. If staff changes between branches, the follow-up instructions for the new location should be made within the first 14 days, otherwise there will be a documentation gap. Seasonal workers in restaurants and event catering are often employed without a valid certificate because appointments with the health department become scarce during peak times. Booking several collective appointments at the beginning of the season helps here; in Berlin and Munich, group instruction for up to 20 people per appointment is possible. CIVAC structures these seasonal waves using the Workspace calendar and blocks appointments in advance. Anyone who has gone through a season without structured advance planning knows the value of a central schedule overview.

The hygiene instructions according to Section 43 IfSG only cover a portion of the training obligations that a food processing company must fulfil. Article 5(2)(g) of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 additionally requires that food business operators train their employees in the HACCP principles in accordance with their activities. Chapter XII of Annex II to the same regulation requires training on food hygiene issues. Section 4 paragraph 2 LMHV specifies this for Germany and requires instruction that is adapted to the activity and risk. Anyone who only carries out the IfSG instructions has left two additional obligations unfulfilled.

In practice, companies combine these three obligations in an annual personnel training course, which is permissible if the content is clearly defined and documented. The IfSG follow-up instructions must be recognised as a separate section because the health authority checks this evidence separately, whereas the HACCP training is controlled by the food monitoring of the veterinary and food inspection offices. Anyone who does not make this separation in the documentation risks complaints from two authorities at the same time and double fines. CIVAC separates the obligations in the workspace into three linked but independent modules: § 43 IfSG follow-up instruction, HACCP training and general food hygiene instruction. Each module produces its own evidence with its own content description and signature line, but all three can be exported in a consolidated personnel file PDF. The reporting line to the hygiene officer is stored in the system so that training implementation, testing and approval are clearly separated. Audit-proof, documented, § 43 IfSG-proof. This separation has proven itself in practical exams because it holds up even when an examiner delves deeply into a subject area and makes cross-references between IfSG and LMHV obligations.

§ 42 IfSG lists activity bans that apply regardless of instructions: Anyone who is sick with typhus, cholera, shigellosis, hepatitis A or certain other pathogens or suspects that they are infected is not allowed to carry out the activities mentioned in § 42 paragraph 1. The same applies to people who have wounds or skin diseases where there is a possibility of pathogens getting into food. The obligation to notify the employer is part of the instruction content and is one of the standard questions in every follow-up instruction.

Violations of the instruction and documentation obligations are punished in accordance with Section 73 Paragraph 1 Numbers 5 and 6 IfSG with a fine of up to 25,000 euros per individual case. In severe cases, according to Section 74 IfSG, a prison sentence of up to five years can even be considered if a disease has been spread by placing contaminated food on the market. Personal liability applies to both the informed person who has concealed their illness and the responsible entrepreneur according to Section 130 OWiG if he has failed to take supervisory measures. Also relevant for managing directors and owners is civil liability towards sick guests who have suffered damage due to inadequate staff hygiene. In the event of damage, insurance companies regularly check the completeness of the instructions and reduce benefits in the event of breaches of duty; the deductible can multiply. Deadline begins as soon as we become aware of it. Anyone who, as a managing director, finds out about a staff illness must take action within the same day, otherwise the obligation to notify becomes close to an administrative offense. A written, documented query at the start of the shift as to whether symptoms of illness exist is standard in multi-shift operations and is viewed positively in inspections.

A branch with 200 employees within the scope of Section 43 IfSG must organise at least 200 follow-up instructions every year, plus initial instructions for new hires and seasonal employees. If done manually, gaps quickly arise: forgotten appointments, lost signature lists, employee lists that have not been updated. The typical result is complaints at the next hygiene inspection and delays in retraining, which disrupt operations. In the worst case, a routine inspection leads to a public complaint that is published on consumer portals such as Topf Secret and damages trust in the company.

A digital workflow structures the annual process in four stages. Firstly: Onboarding with a mandatory check of the official initial instruction and reminder of the three-month deadline, combined with an automatic blocking of the roster as long as the certificate is missing. Secondly: follow-up instructions 14 days after starting work, then annually, with a clearly assigned person responsible for each branch. Third: Reminder and escalation function 30, 14 and 7 days before the due date with notification to the person instructing and the branch management. Fourth: Audit mode, which provides a PDF report of all instructions per location. CIVAC provides these four stages as a preconfigured process. Licence the workspace for your internal representatives, or have our representatives order it. In the Officer-as-a-Service model, a CIVAC hygiene officer provides follow-up instruction remotely and on site, including documentation and correspondence with authorities. The EU data residency of all personal data is secured via the ISO 27001:2022-certified ISMS, so that personnel files are processed in accordance with the GDPR. Others run compliance like a filing cabinet. We run it like software. This shifts the operational burden from the hygiene officer to the system, and the officer concentrates on on-site inspections.

The hygiene instructions seem small because they only last 30 to 60 minutes per person. In a company with several branches, seasonal peaks and staff fluctuation, it becomes a constant task that creates gaps without a system. CIVAC is a compliance platform and officer-as-a-service that converts exactly these recurring duties into an auditable process: 25 officer roles are live, 490 audit templates are ready for use, and the reporting line between the hygiene officer, management and the CIVAC platform is clearly documented. The 93 controls of the ISO/IEC 27001:2022-certified ISMS ensure the data protection of employee files.

You have two options. First: You licence the CIVAC Workspace and carry out the initial and follow-up instructions with your own internal hygiene officers. CIVAC provides templates, reminders, test modules and audit reports. Second: You appoint an external CIVAC hygiene officer who will take over the annual follow-up instructions, training documentation and correspondence with the health authorities. The CIVAC SLA is 2 working days for the appointment certificate, instead of the 2 to 6 weeks that is usual in classic advice. If you would like to know how your company with 50, 200 or 2,000 employees is positioned within the scope of Section 43 IfSG, write to info@civac.de or use the contact form on civac.de. A typical initial consultation lasts 30 minutes and ends with an assessment of whether the workspace model or the appointment of an external representative is a better fit. We check your existing documentation, your branch structure and the list of responsible health authorities in advance and provide a written migration plan with clear milestones for the first 30, 60 and 90 days. This plan names responsible roles, technical steps for importing existing personnel files and a date for the first wave of follow-up instruction in the new system. Turn reading into an assignment.