Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) certification is being mandated in the state of California to ensure the safe purveyance and service of alcohol at any establishment where alcohol is available.
This mandate is being enforced by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), under the Responsible Beverage Service Act, and will come into effect on July 1st, 2022.
If an establishment that sells and serves alcoholic beverages cannot prove that its employees are RBS certified, the establishment could have its liquor license suspended.
Prepare for this mandate by ensuring your staff get certified. Here’s how:
How to Get Certified?
Although establishments will have to provide evidence of their employee’s certification, it will be up to individual employees to obtain this certification. Here’s how to begin the process:
Step 1: Register Through the RBS Portal
The RBS Portal is the ABC’s hub for everything related to RBS certification. This is the platform users will use to register for their certification and take the certification exam.
Step 2: Find an RBS Training Program
In order to obtain RBS Certification, all alcohol servers and managers must complete online RBS training. That said, there are a lot of training providers, so it will be important to select the right training program for your staff.
You want the training program to be convenient, cost-effective, and user-friendly. There is a lot to cover in RBS training, ranging from methods for serving customers, to how much alcohol goes into a mixed drink, to a customer’s Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), so it’s important that you choose a program that covers these topics effectively.
In many cases, training courses can become expensive, so be sure to identify a cost-effective course that provides the necessary tools and educational resources. The more user-friendly a training course is, the easier it will be to understand the material and the faster a user can complete the course towards their certification.
Get RBS training online with Reserve, an efficient and cohesive training program. User’s RBS training course is California State-approved, takes only a few hours to complete, and is an affordable option to provide your staff with the training they need.
Step 3: Take the Exam
Once training is complete, servers will be ready to write the RBS certification exam. The exam costs $3.00 to write and must be passed to receive your RBS certification.
This exam to receive the certification is mandated at the state level, so once you pass the exam, you will be certified and eligible to serve alcoholic beverages anywhere in the state of California.
The exam is made up of 50 multiple choice questions all about the safe practices for serving alcoholic beverages. The questions are randomized and test users on a wide range of content included in the training course. Users have three attempts to pass and need a score of 70% to receive certification. Otherwise, they will have to retake the training and the exam.
Mandatory RBS certification is the next step forward in California’s food and beverage service.
