Accredited food safety training in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
Food safety training for Durban and eThekwini food premises
In Durban the Certificate of Acceptability is issued by the eThekwini Municipality Health Unit, Environmental Health Services, on a paper application that a senior environmental health practitioner and the Environmental Health Services manager sign off after the premises has been inspected (eThekwini CoA application form). The business licence is a separate file at one of five regional licensing offices; the 2024 to 2025 spaza drive drew 6 110 applications.
eThekwini’s food economy runs on the port and its cold chain, a manufacturing sector where food, beverages and tobacco are a fifth of output, the Clairwood produce market, and a hotel trade that fed 1.2 million festive visitors in 2025. ASC trains it online and arranges group sessions on request.
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Which course do I need in Durban?
Pick your situation. Each one goes straight to the right course and price.
A Certificate of Acceptability for my premisesPersons in Charge · R1 699 · 16h A food handler certificate for workFood Handlers · R899 · 6h A spaza shop, tuck shop or market stallInformal Traders and Spaza Shops · R999 · 6h HACCP or GMP training for my teamThree HACCP levels from R1 195 · group pricing FSSC 22000, ISO 22000 or BRCGS certificationIntroduction, transition and implementation On-site or group training in DurbanBulk enrolment, one invoice, manager dashboardCertificate of Acceptability in Durban
Who issues it, what the inspector checks, and the training you must show.
Read the full Certificate of Acceptability guide and the city by city R638 guide.
In Durban the Certificate of Acceptability is issued by the eThekwini Municipality, through its Health Unit, Environmental Health Services. An environmental health practitioner inspects the premises and recommends the certificate in the name of the person in charge, as Regulation 3 of R638 requires. Official page: eThekwini Certificate of Acceptability application form (PDF).
Whoever issues it, the inspection follows the same regulation. R638 requires the person in charge to be trained (regulation 10(1)(d)) and to keep a record that every food handler has been trained, and the inspector can ask for those records at any visit. Certificates from ASC show the accreditation details and a QR code, so the record is verifiable on the spot.
Durban is South Africa’s busiest port city: the Durban Container Terminal is the largest on the continent, the Durban Fresh Produce Market at Clairwood turned over R2.3 billion in the 2024/25 year, and the Prospecton, Jacobs, Mobeni and Pinetown belts hold sugar, edible oil, beverage, seafood and general food manufacturing. Industrial and food-manufacturing areas we train in include Prospecton, Jacobs, Mobeni, Clairwood, Pinetown, New Germany, Westmead, Springfield Park, Riverhorse Valley and Cornubia.
- Persons in Charge for the owner or manager named on the certificate
- Food Handlers for every person who touches food, drink or packaging
- Records: training register, illness reports, cleaning, temperature and pest control (regulation 10)
- Documents: the R638 toolkit gives you the policies, forms and registers, 15% off with a course
Where to apply in Durban
Where and how to apply for a Certificate of Acceptability in Durban.
eThekwini Municipality Health Unit, Environmental Health Services, through the sub-district environmental health office nearest the premises. Contact details below were checked against the municipality’s own website on 6 September 2026; phone before you travel, because offices, hours and numbers change.
Offices and contacts
| Office | Address | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Health head office (walk-in) | 9 Archie Gumede Place, Durban 4001 | 031 311 3508 and 031 311 3690 |
| South 4 (central Durban) | Old Fort Place, City Health, 1st Floor | 031 311 3587 |
| South 3 (Clairwood) | 81 Flower Road, Clairwood | 031 311 5153 |
| South 5 and 6 (Isipingo) | 369 Sykes Road, Isipingo | 031 902 6253 |
| South 2 (Amanzimtoti) | 1 Ross Street, Amanzimtoti | 031 322 6194 |
| South 7 (Shallcross) | 265 Shallcross Road, Shallcross | 031 311 2591 |
| South 8 (Chatsworth) | Main Street, Chatsworth Circle, Arena Park | 031 322 8442 |
| North 1 (Redhill) | 162 Effingham Road, Redhill | 031 322 9847 |
| North 2 (KwaMashu) | E1139 Ntombela Road, KwaMashu | 031 311 4606 |
| North 4 (Inanda) | Portion 1 of 699 Inanda Glebe, Inanda | 031 322 0734 |
| North 5 (Phoenix) | 9 Elfgrove Way, Stanmore, Phoenix | 031 322 9873 |
| North 6 (Verulam) | 151 Wick Street, Verulam | 031 322 1801 |
| West 1 and 2 (Waterfall) | 8 Link Road, Waterfall | 031 311 6956 |
| West 3 (Pinetown) | 18 Chapel Street, Pinetown | 031 311 6845 |
| West 4 (Westville) | 1 William Lester Drive, Westville | 031 311 6638 |
Sub-district enquiries: South 031 311 5586, West 031 311 6614, North 031 322 1778. Environmental health hotline 031 311 3555.
Official pages and forms
How to apply
- Complete the R638 application form: applicant, person in charge, premises, food categories and volumes, handling activities and staff numbers.
- Hand it in at the nearest environmental health office; an environmental health practitioner evaluates the premises on site.
- Apply separately for the business licence (7th Floor, Embassy Building, 199 Anton Lembede Street, 031 311 4535, or e-Services), which needs landlord and town planning consent.
- Display the certificate; a delivery vehicle certificate must name the premises where the food is prepared.
Documents to prepare
- RSA ID or valid passport of the person in charge, with residence documentation for a foreign national
- Company or close corporation registration certificate showing directors or members
- A layout plan of the premises at 1:50 showing the equipment
Fee and turnaround
No fee stated on the form or the community health page. Not published.
What the inspector checks
Structure, water and waste, temperature control, pest control, personal hygiene and training records; the 2022 Food, Milk and Milk Products By-law carries fines of up to R200 000 for non-compliance.
Environmental Health has 73 designated municipal inspectors (eThekwini State of Environmental Compliance report 2023/24).
Local detail, verified September 2026
What is different about Durban
- The health authority is the eThekwini Health Unit. Food premises are inspected by Environmental Health Services within the eThekwini Municipality Health Unit, headquartered at 9 Archie Gumede Place, Durban. The CoA application form asks for the ID or passport of the person in charge, the company registration certificate where the business is a company or close corporation, and a layout plan of the premises drawn to 1:50 showing the equipment; the certificate is issued for the business as it was presented to the EHP, so changes after the inspection need a new look (eThekwini CoA application form).
- EHPs work by region. The Health Unit’s environmental health practitioners are organised across the municipality’s spatial regions, North, Central, South and Outer West, and it is the regional EHP office for your address that inspects and recommends the certificate (Environmental Health Insights, 2026, describing eThekwini EHP oversight of food premises).
- The CoA and the business licence are two separate files. The CoA is a Health Unit matter; the business licence for a spaza shop, restaurant or takeaway goes to Business Licensing at one of five regional offices: Embassy Building, 7th Floor, 199 Anton Lembede Street in the CBD, and the Sizakala Centres at Winklespruit, Pinetown Civic Centre, Verulam and Midway Crossing in Ntuzuma. The Health Unit inspection is one of the departmental checks the licence waits on (The Mercury, 5 March 2025).
- The 2024 to 2025 spaza drive. By the 28 February 2025 deadline eThekwini had received 6 110 spaza licence applications and issued about 1 562 licences, with roughly 395 warnings and fines since September 2024; 457 non-compliance notices went out in the last quarter of 2024 alone, and the municipality said it would publish the names of registered spaza shops (The Mercury, 30 January and 5 March 2025; Durban Local, 7 March 2025). Ward compliance workshops with on-site registration help continued through 2025.
- Food manufacturing is a fifth of the factory base. Manufacturing is 19 percent of eThekwini’s economy and food, beverages and tobacco is 20.2 percent of that manufacturing, second only to fuel and chemicals (COGTA eThekwini metro profile). The Durban Fresh Produce Market at Clairwood, municipally owned, has more than 320 stalls and turned over R2.3 billion in 2024/25 (IOL, 4 February 2026).
- The port sets the cold-chain standard. Durban Container Terminal handles about 65 percent of South Africa’s containerised cargo across Pier 1 and Pier 2 (Transnet Port Terminals). North of the city, Dube TradePort’s AgriZone 2 at King Shaka, 18 hectares of pack-house and cold-store sites, was announced ready to open in May 2026 (Engineering News).
- Tourism kitchens peak in December. The 2025 festive season brought about 1.2 million visitors, R2.7 billion in spend and 77 percent hotel occupancy (SAnews, quoting Mayor Cyril Xaba).
- Metro, not province. eThekwini is a metropolitan municipality, so its own Health Unit delivers municipal health services under section 32 of the National Health Act and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health does not inspect food premises inside the metro (DBSA review). Group and on-site training in Durban is arranged on request, delivered by an ASC trainer travelling to site or online; ASC’s confirmed branches are in Gqeberha, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Sources
- eThekwini CoA application form (PDF)
- Environmental Health Insights, 2026
- The Mercury, 5 March 2025
- The Mercury, 30 January 2025
- Durban Local, 7 March 2025
- The Mercury, 19 November 2024
- COGTA eThekwini metro profile (PDF)
- IOL, 4 February 2026, Durban Fresh Produce Market
- Transnet Port Terminals, Durban Container Terminal
- Engineering News, 12 May 2026
- SAnews, eThekwini tourism
- DBSA review of municipal health services (PDF)
Courses Durban businesses buy most
Six courses cover almost every food premises in Durban.
- Food Safety Practices for Persons in Charge of Food Premises ★ 4.77 (101) R1 699 Enrol
- Basic Food Safety Practices for Food Handlers ★ 4.76 (58) R899 Enrol
- Basic Food Hygiene Awareness for Food Handlers ★ 4.86 (21) R420 Enrol
-
Food Safety Practices for Informal Traders and Spaza Shops
★ 4.88 (8)
R1 195R999 Enrol - Implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices ★ 5.00 (3) R1 950 Enrol
- Introduction to HACCP ★ 4.90 (10) R1 195 Enrol
- Basic Food Safety Document Templates Toolkit Templates Documents R699 View toolkit
Prices are the price you pay; no VAT is charged. The Basic Food Safety Bundle covers Persons in Charge, Food Handlers and Hygiene Awareness together at R2 264. HACCP for Supervisors and Advanced HACCP, FSSC 22000, ISO 22000, BRCGS and GLOBALG.A.P. are on the Enrol page.
Who trains with ASC in Durban
Written for the food businesses that operate in Durban
Hotels on the Golden Mile, the uMhlanga and Umdloti resort strip, Florida Road and the Morningside restaurant belt hire seasonally and turn staff over fast. Persons in Charge for the kitchen manager named on the CoA, Food Handlers or Hygiene Awareness for every new hire before the December rush, one dashboard per group.
Prospecton, Mobeni, Jacobs, Pinetown, New Germany, Westmead, Phoenix Industrial Park and Riverhorse Valley hold the beverage, bakery, snack, sugar, edible oil and ready-meal plants behind the metro’s food manufacturing share. R638 basics for the floor, then Introduction to HACCP, HACCP for Supervisors and GMP for the teams facing retailer, FSSC 22000 and export audits.
Maydon Wharf, Bayhead, the container terminal precinct and the cold stores and distribution centres along the N2 and N3 corridors move chilled and frozen food in and out of the country. Food handler training for warehouse and transport staff satisfies the R638 transport provisions, and HACCP for the quality team.
Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda, Ntuzuma, Chatsworth, Phoenix and the Warwick Junction market precinct carried most of the 6 110 spaza licence applications. The Informal Traders and Spaza Shops course is written for the Health Unit’s inspection and the Business Licensing file. School nutrition kitchens, campus canteens and event caterers use the same Persons in Charge and Food Handlers pair.
On-site and in-house training
Train a Durban kitchen, plant or franchise group on one dashboard.
Group and on-site training in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal is arranged on request, delivered by an ASC trainer travelling to your site or live online.
- Send the learner countWhatsApp or the contact form. Quote within one working day, one invoice, no VAT.
- Learners train online or on sitePhone, tablet or laptop, self-paced for the R638 courses. On-site sessions through the Johannesburg branch.
- Manager dashboardSee who has finished, download certificates, and hand the inspector a training record for every site.
Add the documents. The Basic Food Safety Document Templates Toolkit (R699, 40+ editable Word and Excel policies, procedures, forms and checklists aligned to R638) is 15% off when you buy it with any R638 course. Tell us on WhatsApp +27 61 483 0381 or the contact form which course you are enrolling in, and we invoice both with the discount applied.
Questions from Durban
What Durban food businesses ask before they enrol.
Anything else, message us on WhatsApp during office hours or use the support page.
Who issues the Certificate of Acceptability in Durban?
The eThekwini Municipality Health Unit, Environmental Health Services, headquartered at 9 Archie Gumede Place. An environmental health practitioner from the regional office for your address inspects the premises against R638; the application is then signed off by a senior EHP and the Environmental Health Services manager and issued in the name of the person in charge.
Is the eThekwini CoA the same as the business licence?
No. The CoA is issued by the Health Unit for the premises and the person in charge. The business licence for a spaza shop, restaurant or takeaway is a separate application to Business Licensing at one of five regional offices (Embassy Building in the CBD and the Sizakala Centres at Winklespruit, Pinetown, Verulam and Ntuzuma). The licence waits on the Health Unit inspection among other departmental checks, so get the CoA file and the training in order first.
Is there a fee for the Certificate of Acceptability in eThekwini?
The eThekwini CoA application form does not state a fee, and we have not found a published tariff for it; ask Environmental Health Services when you submit and see the Where to apply block on this page. Business licence fees are set separately by Business Licensing.
Will the eThekwini inspector accept an online ASC certificate?
R638 requires the person in charge to be trained and to keep a training record for every food handler; it does not prescribe classroom or online delivery. ASC is a SAATCA registered provider, TC 065, for the R638 Persons in Charge course and a FoodBev SETA accredited provider (587/00337/1900), and each certificate carries a QR code the EHP can scan at the inspection.
Can ASC train a Durban team on site?
Group and on-site training in Durban and the rest of KwaZulu-Natal is arranged on request, delivered by an ASC trainer travelling to your site or run live online; ASC’s confirmed branches are in Gqeberha, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Any size of group can also enrol online today with one invoice and a manager dashboard showing who has finished. Send the learner count on WhatsApp or the contact form.
Also serving
Food safety training near Durban.
This page covers the whole eThekwini metro, from Tongaat and Verulam through uMhlanga, Durban, Pinetown, Hillcrest, Umlazi and Isipingo to Amanzimtoti and Umkomaas. Ballito and KwaDukuza fall under the iLembe District Municipality’s environmental health practitioners, Pietermaritzburg and Howick under uMgungundlovu District, and Scottburgh and Port Shepstone under Ugu District, each issuing its own CoA; the online courses and the on-request trainer arrangement on this page serve all of them, and Pietermaritzburg has its own page on the city and province index.