Health Card in Foodservice 2026
The health card is now a medical certificate. Who must have one, who pays, how long it is valid and how to remove a sick employee from food handling.
"Bring your health card" (the sanitary-epidemiological health card, "książeczka sanepidowska") - you still hear this sentence when you talk to a job candidate. A document with that name no longer exists. What exists is the medical certificate for sanitary-epidemiological purposes under the Act of 5 December 2008 on the Prevention and Control of Infections and Infectious Diseases in Humans. The name changed, the obligation stayed.
In brief
- The health card is a colloquial name. What applies is a medical certificate stating either fitness for the work or contraindications.
- The law sets no fixed validity period. The implementing regulation under Art. 10(2) of the Act was never issued. The doctor decides when the next examination is due.
- The cost of examining an employee or a contractor is borne by the employer or the party commissioning the work (Art. 8(4)). A candidate who applies on their own pays for it themselves (Art. 8(4a)).
- Keep the certificates in the personnel files and copies at the venue - Art. 59(4) and (5) of the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety.
- Removing a person from work is an obligation - without delay and with confidentiality (Art. 10(1)).
What the certificate is and why "card" is an outdated name
The old health book was a notebook with test results pasted in. The 2008 Act replaced that model with a medical certificate. The doctor issues one document: it states either fitness for work in which infection can be transmitted, or temporary or permanent contraindications.
The old regulations describing the card and the form templates ceased to apply in January 2012. The new one remained a draft of the Ministry of Health. This does not abolish the obligation to be examined, but it means that some details now come from medical practice rather than from a legal act.
Who must have one: contact with food in practice
The scope is set by two provisions. Art. 6(1)(5) of the 2008 Act covers people who start or perform work in which infection can be transmitted. Art. 59(2) of the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety (25 August 2006) says directly that a person working in contact with food must obtain the certificate.
The regulation defining the types of such work was never issued, so the boundary is set by common sense. Contact is not only touching the product, but also contact with equipment and dishes that will touch it later. The following should have a certificate:
- cooks, kitchen assistants, pastry chefs, baristas and bartenders
- waiters who serve dishes, carry plates and lay out cutlery and glassware
- people who wash dishes, receive deliveries and clean the production area
- the owner and the manager, if they enter the kitchen and work with food
Put this threshold into your plan for the first 7 days of a new employee, so that nobody starts a shift without the document.
Where to have the examination and what it covers
The examination is carried out by a primary care doctor or an occupational medicine doctor, and the laboratory tests by the laboratories of the State Sanitary Inspection (Sanepid) or others named in the Act (Art. 7 of the Act).
The standard scope used by occupational medicine clinics is three stool samples from three consecutive days, tested for carriage of Salmonella and Shigella bacilli, plus a medical examination with an interview. The absence of a regulation means that clinics differ in procedure. Ask the clinic how many days before the visit the samples must be handed in.
How long they are valid and who decides on the date of the next one
This is the most common myth in this matter. On the internet you can find "the certificate is valid for 2 years" or "3 years". The law contains no such period: the Act specifies neither a validity period nor the moment the certificate expires, and the regulation on examination dates was never issued.
So the doctor decides on the date of the next examination and may enter it in the certificate. If the date is there, transfer it to your register and set a reminder. If it is not, ask for it at the next visit. Do not write a fixed number of years into your own documentation.
Who pays: employee, employer, contractor, sole owner
The difference depends on who refers the person for the examination.
| Situation | Who refers | Who bears the cost |
|---|---|---|
| A person employed or starting work under an employment contract | the employer (Art. 6(2)) | the employer (Art. 8(4)) |
| A contractor under a contract of mandate, a contract for specific work, or a collaborating person | the party commissioning the work | the party commissioning the work (Art. 8(4)) |
| A candidate who applies on their own, before finding a job | their own application (Art. 6(2a)) | that person (Art. 8(4a)) |
| A sole owner working with food | their own application | that person |
If you refer an employee or a contractor for the examination, the cost is yours. A clause in the contract shifting it to the employee does not change the content of the Act.
A worker from abroad and a certificate issued outside Poland
The law does not differentiate the obligation by citizenship. A person from Ukraine, Georgia or the Philippines is subject to the same Art. 6(1)(5) and the same Art. 59(2) as a Polish citizen.
The most common question is whether to accept a document issued abroad. The Act says that the certificate is issued by a primary care doctor or an occupational medicine doctor. A foreign health card or a result from a clinic outside Poland is not that certificate. You have the examination done in Poland, regardless of what the employee brought with them.
What usually blocks this process:
- Sampling instructions. The most common reason why the examination gets stuck for two weeks. Someone who does not understand the instructions will bring one sample, or the wrong one. Give the description in their language, even added to the bilingual instructions for the team.
- Interview and registration. Without a common language or an interpreter, the visit ends with nothing. Also agree with the clinic what data it requires from a person without a PESEL number.
Also do not plan the first shift with food for the day after the contract is signed: the certificate must be in place before work begins. And do not confuse three documents that arise in parallel: legalisation of work, the preliminary preventive examinations under the Labour Code and the sanitary-epidemiological certificate. These are three separate paths. We collected the list of papers in the article on documents when hiring foreigners in foodservice, and the hygiene rules in the post on training a Ukrainian-speaking team.
Where to keep the documentation and what the inspector looks for
The provision is specific here, and yet often overlooked. Art. 59(4) of the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety requires keeping certificates and training documentation in the personnel files and making them available to the official food control authorities. Art. 59(5) goes further: copies must be at the place where the work is performed. The original in the files, a copy at the venue. A binder in an office in another city does not meet this condition.
The inspector checks three things at once: whether every person on shift has a current certificate, whether the copy is on site, and whether there is training documentation under Chapter XII of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. Gaps are one of the typical non-conformities in staff hygiene. For employing people without the required certificates, Art. 100 of the same Act provides for a fine. Keep the training documentation according to the rules in the post on occupational health and safety and hygiene training.
An employee fell ill or came back with symptoms: the removal procedure
This is where most venues improvise. And there are two triggers and two different legal bases.
Trigger 1: a certificate with contraindications
If the doctor has found temporary or permanent contraindications, the person may not perform that work (Art. 10(1)). The employer or the party commissioning the work is obliged, with confidentiality, to remove them from that work without delay (Art. 10(1)). "Without delay" means the same day, not after the weekend. "With confidentiality" means that you tell the team about a change to the schedule, not about a colleague's state of health.
Trigger 2: symptoms on shift or return after illness
The basis is Annex II, Chapter VIII of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. A person suffering from a disease likely to be transmitted through food or a carrier of it, and also a person with infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea, may not work with food or enter a food-handling area if there is a risk of contamination. The same provision places an obligation on the employee to report the illness or symptoms to their supervisor immediately. Write this into the procedure: the employee must know this before they fall ill.
The procedure in six steps
- Reporting before the shift. A list of symptoms in the back room: diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, jaundice, sore throat with fever, weeping wounds, skin lesions on the hands.
- Decision of the shift manager. Removal from food, not a move "to the dishwashing station": clean dishes are still contact with what will touch the food. What remains is work outside the production area or going off shift.
- Wounds without general symptoms. A waterproof dressing in a contrasting colour plus a glove. A weeping or infected wound means removal.
- Recording the event. Date, person, symptom, decision, who made it. One line in the register, which is evidence that the system worked.
- Return criterion. The regulations do not give a number of hours. In practice, venues write a fixed threshold into the procedure, most often 48 hours after diarrhoea and vomiting have stopped without symptom-relieving medication. Set your own and do not renegotiate it each time.
- A more serious situation. In the case of a confirmed infectious disease of the digestive tract or a suspected poisoning among guests, call the county sanitary-epidemiological station.
A template for the certificate register in the team
The register does not replace the certificates. It is an index: in a minute you can answer who is working today and whether they have the document.
| Full name | Type of work | Certificate date | Clinic | Date of next examination | Copy at the venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [full name] | cook, heat treatment | [dd.mm.yyyy] | [clinic] | [date or "not specified"] | yes |
| [full name] | waiter, serving dishes | [dd.mm.yyyy] | [clinic] | [date or "not specified"] | yes |
The column "date of next examination" does the most work here. An entry "not specified" is a signal to ask for it at the next visit.
Frequently asked questions
Is the health card still mandatory?
Not in that form. It is the colloquial name of the former document. What applies is the medical certificate for sanitary-epidemiological purposes under the Act of 5 December 2008. The obligation to be examined itself has stayed.
How long is a certificate for sanitary-epidemiological purposes valid?
The law does not set a fixed validity period, because the regulation on examination dates has not been issued. The doctor decides on the date of the next examination and may enter it in the certificate.
Who pays for an employee's sanitary-epidemiological examination?
The costs of examining people who start or perform work in which infection can be transmitted are borne by the employer or the party commissioning the work (Art. 8(4)). A candidate who applies on their own initiative pays themselves (Art. 8(4a)).
Can an employee from Ukraine work on the basis of examinations done in their own country?
Do not assume so. The certificate is issued by a primary care doctor or an occupational medicine doctor, and a document from outside the Polish system is not one. Plan the examinations in Poland before work begins.
Does a waiter need a certificate for sanitary-epidemiological purposes?
In practice, yes. A waiter serves dishes, carries plates and lays out cutlery, so works in contact with food within the meaning of Art. 59(2) of the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety.
Legal status as of: 21 August 2026
Legal basis: Act of 5 December 2008 on the Prevention and Control of Infections and Infectious Diseases in Humans (incl. Art. 6, 7, 8, 10); Act on Food and Nutrition Safety of 25 August 2006 (Art. 59, Art. 100); Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 (Annex II, Chapters VIII and XII). The implementing regulation provided for in Art. 10(2) of the 2008 Act has not been issued.
Last review: 21 August 2026
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