Guide to good hygiene practices in the bakery-pastry trade (GBPH)

What is the GPBH in bakery – patisserie??

The GBPH boulangerie pâtisserie is the Guide des Bonnes Pratiques d’Hygiène for bakers and patissiers. This guide is the reference document designed by your professional branch for the application of hygiene and safety measures. ?

The GBPH boulangerie pâtisserie does not replace a plan de Maitrise Sanitaire, as the PMS is tailor-made for your establishment. Contact an approved organization to draw up a Sanitary Control Plan adapted to your establishment.

You can download here the ? Guide to good hygiene practice in bakery-pastry.

To help you decipher it, this article summarizes the main hygiene principles to be applied in bakeries and patisseries.

How to Implement a HACCP Plan in Bakery and Pastry? ?

For more information on this topic ? check out our article to better understand the HACCP method.

As with all food businesses, you must comply with the 7 main principles of the HACCP method:

• Analyze hazards,
• Determine the different critical control points (CCP: Critical Control Point),
• Set the critical limit(s),
• Implement monitoring of these control measures at the CCPs,
• Define corrective actions when a given CCP fails,
• Apply verification procedures to confirm that the HACCP system works effectively,
• Gather all procedures and records concerning these principles and their implementation.

These 7 steps should be implemented across 3 main areas:

• Temperature control ❄️,
• Traceability ?,
• Cleaning and disinfection plan ?️.

Temperatures ?️

You must ensure the cold chain so that it is not interrupted. To do this, you must regularly check the temperature of your cold storage units with a thermometer. Preferably once a day, every morning. ?

You must keep your fresh products at the correct temperature. In most cases, your fridge should be at a temperature below 4°C to prevent the growth and proliferation of bacteria or microorganisms.

If your cold storage exceeds the critical temperature limit, you must record your corrective action (for example: disposal of the merchandise).

Rapid cooling ❄️

When cooling a product, you must record the start time and temperature, as well as the cooling duration. This duration must not exceed 2 hours for a hot product to cool from 63°C to 10°C. Because this time window presents a high risk of bacterial development. ?

By rapidly cooling your preparations, you ensure food safety in your bakery and pastry shop. Be especially careful with mousses, cake inserts, pastry creams, and all products made with raw eggs and/or cream.

Traceability ?

As a professional, you must ensure traceability of your products during receipt and processing.

Upstream traceability: you must be able to keep records of all products coming into your business. We recommend keeping delivery notes or invoices. Make sure product details appear on these documents. When receiving products from a supplier, you must also ensure the goods are intact.

• Products not expired
• Intact packaging
• Correct truck temperature and perform a temperature check on a sensitive product.

If a product does not meet these criteria, you must refuse the shipment. ❌

Internal traceability: you must track the products you process. When a product is unpackaged, you must keep a record of its lot number and use-by or best-before date. You can do this by noting the information on a traceability sheet, cutting out and keeping the labels, or using an app like Octopus HACCP to take pictures of your labels and automatically organize them.

• The product name,
• Its use-by date (DLC) or best-before date (DDM),
• Its batch number.

To keep this information, cut out and store your labels for a maximum of 6 months in a binder dedicated to this purpose.

Secondary traceability: When you unpack or defrost products, their shelf life is reduced. All unpackaged products must be labeled with the manufacturing or opening date and the secondary use-by date (maximum 3 days in the absence of microbiological analysis). ?️

Define secondary use-by dates adapted to production conditions and products to reduce bacteriological hazards ?. You must establish secondary use-by dates adapted for each product family in your workshop, according to your production conditions.

Secondary use-by dates concern all unpackaged or opened goods. Dehydrated products are at risk and may absorb moisture due to high ambient humidity, contributing to germ proliferation. These goods must be stored protected from external contamination, either in covered bins or hermetically sealed containers.

The shelf life must not exceed 3 days if you do not carry out microbiological analysis. Under 3 days, you take no regulatory risk, but some products cannot be kept for 3 days (such as milk or liquid eggs, etc.).

In all cases, you must date your opened or produced products with the production/manufacturing date and the expiration date. ✏️

Cleaning plan for the bakery – pastry shop ?️

In bakery and pastry shops, the significant presence of yeasts makes hygiene training essential for your teams during the different handling stages.

For equipment, you must be especially vigilant with the mixer and the moulder, ensuring they are in good condition, easily dismantled, and cleaned and disinfected thoroughly and regularly. Disinfection eliminates bacteria, viruses, but especially yeasts.

You must determine:

• Who cleans and disinfects?
• The areas of the bakery-pastry shop that are cleaned and disinfected – Where?
• The elements (surfaces, equipment, etc.) cleaned and disinfected – What?
• The most effective cleaning and disinfection method (which hygiene product, which equipment to use) – How?
• The safest cleaning and disinfection frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) – When?

Record the execution of your cleaning plan every day. You can do this either with an app like Octopus HACCP that will show you the list of tasks to perform daily, or on paper by downloading your cleaning plan tracking sheet. ?️

Discover our application for bakeries.

How Does a Hygiene Inspection in a Bakery – Pastry Shop Take Place? ?️‍♂️

Unannounced Hygiene Inspections

Inspectors from the DDPP ensure that bakers and pastry chefs comply with hygiene regulations and HACCP good practices. ?

Most of the time, these inspections occur unexpectedly and are rarely random. Several reasons can trigger a DDPP inspection, such as a report from a consumer or a complaint from a former employee.

The frequency of inspections also depends on the health risk posed by the type of establishment, that is, based on its history or geographic location (tourist area, etc.). ?️

How a Hygiene Inspection in a Bakery – Pastry Shop Proceeds

A DDPP inspector has the right to access all areas of your bakery-pastry shop without restriction, provided they present their ID.

They also have the right to:

• Obtain any documents related to food hygiene,
• Make copies of these documents,
• Question your team members to obtain information and explanations,
• Conduct samples for analysis or check the temperature of food and cold rooms, for example,
• Destroy food or ingredients that pose a risk to human consumption.

At the end of the inspection, the DDPP inspector writes a report that includes an evaluation:

• “Very satisfactory,” ?
• “Satisfactory,” ?
• “Needs improvement,” ?
• “Urgent correction required” ?

This evaluation is made public on the website and the Alim’confiance app.

Download our free guide to HACCP in the bakery?

• 1 PDF table to make your readings,
• 1 Excel table to create your cleaning plan,
• 1 teaching sheet.