Rules, hygiene and certificates in retail
From food control and hygiene certificate to marketing law and alcohol and tobacco trade
Retail trade is not a trade with a single national authorization as you know from for example electrical or plumbing areas. But there are still a number of rules certificates and legal requirements you need to know and follow — especially when you work with food or sell items subject to age restrictions. Here you get the most important ones.
§Food hygiene — a legal requirement
If you work somewhere that handles food, it is a legal requirement that staff are instructed or trained in food hygiene. That training must be in place early — typically already in the first few days of work. It is about preventing food from making people sick: proper storage, temperatures, separation of raw and prepared, cleaning and personal hygiene.
Many take a hygiene course and get a hygiene certificate documenting that they know the rules. The certificate is especially relevant if you work with food preparation or sale where requirements are stricter.
§Food inspection and self-inspection
Shops selling food are subject to public food inspection. Most people know the result as the smiley scheme where the inspection's assessment hangs visibly in the shop. To meet the requirements the business must have its own inspection in order — fixed routines for e.g. temperature measurement, shelf life and cleaning which the staff perform and document. As an apprentice you become part of those routines.
§Age limits and special goods
If you sell alcohol and tobacco, there are statutory age limits you must enforce at the checkout. It's your responsibility to ask for ID if in doubt. The same attention applies to other restricted goods. Knowing and following the rules protects the customer, the store and yourself.
§Rules in meeting the customer
When you sell to private consumers there are laws protecting the customer. The marketing law sets limits on how you can advertise and display prices and the sales law gives the customer rights for example with fault and defects in goods. If the customer buys online — relevant for the Digital commerce specialty — additional rules apply on things like withdrawal rights and information obligations.
- 01Food hygiene: legally required instruction, often documented with hygiene certificate
- 02Food control: smiley scheme and self-inspection in the store
- 03Age limits: identification when selling alcohol and tobacco
- 04Marketing and purchase law: protects the customer in sales
- 05E-commerce: extra rules on withdrawal rights and information
§The journeyman's exam as documentation
Your actual professional credential is the final examination — the trade test or journeyman's test — which you pass at the end of the course. It documents that you master your specialty professionally and may call yourself qualified in retail.