Buying food hygiene training for your whole team

Last updated 13 October 2026. Prices checked 5 October 2026

Training one new starter is easy. You find a course, pay for it, job done. Training your whole team is a different kettle of fish. Suddenly you're juggling logins, chasing people to finish, and wondering whether you've got the best price.

Three hospitality staff in aprons looking at training courses together on a laptop

Most providers make team buying fairly painless, and a few of them quietly offer things that make your life much easier, like a free tool to see who's finished. This guide walks you through how it works, what each provider gives you, and the little traps that catch people out.

The short version

You always buy one course per person, because logins can't be shared. Buy in one go and most providers knock money off. The real difference between them is what happens next: some give you a simple dashboard to hand out courses and see who's done them, while with others, keeping track is down to you.

How each provider handles team orders

Swipe sideways to see all five providers.

What you get	High Speed Training£20 + VAT per courseView course	Virtual College£16 + VAT per courseView course	Food Safety UK£10 + VAT per courseView course	CIEH£29.75 + VAT per courseView course	Highfield Level 2 Award, via Axtell Food Safety£170 per person, inc. VAT and booking feeView course
Team discount	10% to 40% off10% from 10 courses, 20% from 50, 30% from 100, 40% from 500	10% to 40% off10% from 10 courses, 20% from 25, 30% from 50, 40% from 100	Not publishedA group sign-up is needed for 2 or more learners	From 5 courses£27.75 + VAT each for 5 to 20, £25.75 for 21 to 50, a quote for 51+	Ask providerGroup and in-house courses are available
Mix different courses for the discount	Yes, any courses	Yes, most courses	Not published	Yes, across all levels	Not applicable
Hand out courses and see who's finished	Yes, freeTheir Management Suite comes with team orders	Ask providerTeam subscriptions are offered separately	PartlyA group leader enrols learners when they like; whether you can see who's finished isn't published	YesTheir learning platform tracks progress	Track it yourselfEach person gets their own certificate
Pay by invoice	Yes, from 5 coursesWith 30 days to pay	Ask provider	Not published	Yes, on a bulk quote	Book and pay online
Time to use the courses you buy	No deadline	Start within 12 monthsUnstarted courses can be cancelled after 12 months; no time limit once started is stated	90 days per learnerNot published whether this starts when you buy or when you enrol someone	12 months from purchase	Booked for a set date

YesNoNot published, worth asking before you buy

A little trick that can get you a course for free

Here's something most people miss. Because discounts kick in at set numbers, buying slightly more can cost you exactly the same, or even less.

Say you need 9 people trained with High Speed Training. Nine courses at £20 each comes to £180 plus VAT. But buy 10 and the 10% discount kicks in, so ten courses also come to £180 plus VAT. Same money, one spare course for your next new starter. And because High Speed Training courses have no deadline, that spare won't go to waste. Virtual College works the same way at 10 courses, and there's an even better one there: 25 courses cost less than 24, because the discount jumps from 10% to 20%.

Just keep an eye on the time limits before you stock up. Virtual College's terms say courses that haven't been started within 12 months of ordering can be cancelled, so a spare is only worth it if you'll be hiring within the year.

What each provider is like for teams

High Speed Training

The easiest for managers

This is the one we'd point a busy manager towards. When you buy for a team you get their Management Suite free of charge, which lets you hand courses out to people, see who's started, and check who's finished, all in one place. They'll even give you a free session on how to use it. Add in invoice payment for orders of five or more, discounts that apply automatically, and no deadline for using the courses, and there's very little to trip you up.

Virtual College

The cheapest for bigger teams

Virtual College starts cheapest and its discounts climb fastest, hitting 40% off at 100 courses. You can mix and match most of their courses to reach the next discount band too, which is handy if you also need allergen or Level 3 training. What's less clear is the admin side: they don't spell out what tracking you get with a one-off bulk order, and they push team subscriptions as a separate option. Worth a quick call to ask before you buy.

Food Safety UK

The lowest price per person

At £10 + VAT a course, this is the cheapest online option here for most team sizes. Only Virtual College's biggest discount, 40% off at 100 courses, brings a course lower. For two or more people you set up a group registration, and a group leader then enrols learners whenever they like, so you can add new starters as they join. What isn't published is whether you get team discounts, invoice payment or a way to see who's finished, so ask before a big order. Each learner gets 90 days' access, which ends once they pass. It's also worth asking whether those 90 days start when you buy or when you enrol someone, before you buy spares.

CIEH

Good for smaller teams who want the official name

CIEH's discount starts at just five courses, which suits a small café or pub better than providers that make you buy ten. Their online platform lets you track progress too. The trade-off is that it starts as the priciest of the four online options. Their team prices apply from five courses, and for more than 50 they ask you to get in touch for a quote. You get 12 months to use the courses once bought.

Highfield Level 2 Award, via Axtell Food Safety

For when you need a regulated qualification

This one works differently. Each person books their own seat on a live Zoom session, so there's no bundle or dashboard, and you'll keep track yourself. If you've got a group to train, Axtell also runs in-house sessions for your team, so it's worth asking about that. Do read the booking rules carefully, because they're stricter than the online courses (more on that below).

Things that catch people out

One course means one person. It's tempting to buy one login and let everyone take turns, but each certificate is in one person's name, and it won't show that anyone else has been trained. Buy one for each person who needs it.

Courses can run out before you use them. Virtual College can cancel courses that haven't been started within 12 months of ordering, and with CIEH it's twelve months from purchase. Food Safety UK gives each learner 90 days. High Speed Training is the exception, with no deadline at all. So if you're buying ahead for future hires, that makes a real difference.

Get people's email addresses right. Logins usually go out by email, so a typo means someone's sitting there waiting while you chase it up. Double-check the list before you hit buy.

Live courses have strict rules. With Axtell, you get a full refund if you cancel at least seven days before the course (apart from the booking fee). Cancel between three and seven days before and there's a £40 fee, and inside three days there's no refund at all. Anyone more than 15 minutes late to the Zoom session won't be let in, and moving an exam with less than 48 hours' notice costs £70 plus VAT. None of that is unreasonable, but it's worth telling your team before they book.

Keeping track afterwards

Whichever provider you go with, keep your own simple record of who's done what and when it's due for a refresher. It's what an inspector will want to see, and it means nobody quietly slips through the net. Our guide to Training records and a staff matrix gives you a ready-made layout you can copy.

Where to go next

If you're still deciding which course is right, have a look at our side-by-side Course comparisons. And if you're weighing up the cost, our guide to Course costs and what's included explains where the money goes.

How we put this together

We haven't bought team packages ourselves. Everything here comes from each provider's own website and terms, checked between 2 and 5 October 2026. Every price was rechecked on the providers' own websites on 5 October 2026. Where something isn't published, we've said so rather than guessing. Providers do change their offers, so it's always worth a quick check before you place a big order.

Sources we used