GBPH restaurateur: a guide to good hygiene practices.

To make things easier for you, professional unions, in collaboration with HACCP experts, have developed the Good Hygiene Practices Guides (known as GBPH). These guides compile all the essential hygiene practices to implement in your establishment.

In this article, we’ll give you the keys to understanding what the GBPH is for, how to use it effectively, and how to download it as a PDF so you always have it on hand. ?

GBPH for restaurant owners – Definition. ?

GBPH and HACCP – What’s the connection between these two concepts? ?️

The Good Hygiene Practices Guide (GBPH) and the HACCP method are two fundamental pillars of food safety in the food service industry. They complement each other. The HACCP method is a set of rules and standards that underpin regulations. But since each profession has its own specifics, professional unions and industry experts have written guides for each trade (or almost all of them). GBPHs are therefore, in a way, guides ? that support the proper implementation of the HACCP method in your establishment.

Good hygiene practices in food service?

At the heart of the GBPH, good hygiene practices are the foundation of food safety. They include everything from proper handwashing and cleaning of work surfaces, to correct temperature management for cooking and food storage. Strict compliance with hygiene standards is essential.

Good hygiene practices concern:

• Raw materials ?: purchasing and logistics
• Premises ?: working environment, equipment and tools, maintenance, pest control
• Cleaning and disinfection ?️ (with the implementation of a cleaning and disinfection plan)
• Staff hygiene, health, and training ?

These good practices define the framework within which operations can be carried out. Some of them are regulated by law. ⚖️

GBPH process sheets and flow diagrams ?

To facilitate the implementation of these good practices, the GBPH includes detailed process sheets and production flow diagrams. These visual tools help quickly understand production flows and identify points where hygiene measures must be reinforced.

What are the risks of not following the GBPH? ⚠️

Failure to comply with Good Hygiene Practices can lead to serious consequences, not only for your customers’ health but also during health inspections.

The importance of following the HACCP method in restaurants ?

From a health risk perspective, poor hygiene practices can cause illness among your customers — or even death.

If you’re feeling a bit lost about all your obligations, feel free to sign up for our free HACCP training sessions to get a clearer picture and benefit from expert advice. ?

Administrative sanctions for non-compliance with the GBPH during a health inspection ?

During a restaurant hygiene inspection, if the inspector notes non-compliance with the HACCP method and the GBPH, this may result in several types of administrative sanctions.

Possible sanctions include:

⚠️ Administrative sanctions: the warning

In case of minor violations: you will receive a reminder letter listing the observations made during the inspection and the measures to be implemented within a given timeframe. For example: no lid on a trash bin, broken tiles on a work surface, partial failure in traceability, etc.

⚠️ Criminal sanctions

If a more serious violation is found — for instance, expired goods in refrigerators or false labeling of an organic product — a report will be sent to the public prosecutor. This may lead to a fine, a heavy penalty, or even imprisonment in cases of serious infractions.

⚠️ Administrative closure

This is the most severe sanction. When an establishment is found to be non-compliant and poses a risk to public health — such as the presence of pests (cockroaches, mice, droppings), products clearly unsafe for consumption (expired, moldy, etc.), or unsanitary premises — the prefect may order the closure, which can be accompanied by heavy fines and/or imprisonment.

To be fully prepared for a hygiene inspection and avoid sanctions, it’s essential to carry out your daily HACCP self-checks: traceability, temperature monitoring, cleaning and disinfection plans. An HACCP application can help you stay compliant and stress-free during health inspections!

The different GBPH ?️

The GBPH are guides created by various professional unions and validated by several authorities: the Directorate General for Food, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, and the Directorate General for Health. This process is long and complex, requiring the alignment of many parties, so not all sectors have a GBPH, such as collective catering, whose various bodies have never managed to reach an agreement (!).

The following GBPH exist:

• Fast Food GBPH ? : recently published in July 2024, it is by far the best structured and most comprehensive. Even if your activity is not strictly fast food, I recommend taking a look at it to create your Food Safety Management Plan or to check if your procedures are compliant.
• Restaurateur GBPH ? : dating back to 2015. Its strong point? Numerous production flow diagrams for basic traditional restaurant recipes that can help you verify your recipe sheets from an HACCP perspective.
• Butchery GBPH ? : from 1999, the heyday of Minitel! The only problem is that the source files seem to have disappeared, and on the government website, this document is available in 3 very poorly photocopied parts.
• Charcuterie GBPH ?: Written in 2016 by the CNCT, very comprehensive, it includes, among other things, the production flow diagrams for endives with ham and jellied pork snout salad!
• And what about the collective catering GBPH? It does not really exist! A GBPH for collective catering was drafted a few years ago, but the various authorities failed to reach an agreement, and it was never validated. For collective catering, there exist:
  • A GBPH dedicated to outdoor collective catering for youth groups validated in 2010.
  • A specific GBPH for home meal delivery, created by ADMR, a national personal service association, in 2011.

• For all other available GBPH, visit the government website: regulatory update of GBPH as of July 18, 2024

Receive my GBPH in PDF ?

We are pleased to offer you the Restaurateur GBPH in PDF. Fill out the form below, and you will receive by email the 2 GBPH PDFs:

• The Restaurateur GBPH – PDF – 2015
• The Fast Food GBPH – PDF – 2024