Food hygiene certificates in france

Legal Advice
1

hello, I wonder if anyone knows if UK hygiene certificates are accepted to handle food commercially in France?


I ask because it costs about £89 to do a level 3 certificate in the UK and 349 euro to do a level 1 here.


Or, does anyone know of a reasonably priced course? Online would be best as we live in the middle of nowhere.


We're starting a takeaway breakfast food kitchen.


Will probably be selling continental and English.

2

oh and I did get the FRENCH certificate as well, the UK one is for my UK partners

3

I'm going to keep my UK hygiene certificate, have it translated in French and if someone argues with me over it, I shall refer them to my question to DRAAF

I think I've done everything that could be reasonably expected to solve this

4

and DRAAF have not answered me over a year later.....

5

thanks for this, what a handy service..so fast, I got an online chat in about a minute!!!

.they didn't know though, told me to contact the ministry of health in France, who are not the authority dealing with selling food to the public, It's the DRAAF --food and fisheries. So I've written to them

6

Hi Jo - If, at the end of the day, this is going to cost you significant bucks/Euros/beer tokens, it might be worth contacting Solvit, which is a service provided by the EU in Brussels. They should be able to advise you as to the EU law applicable in your case and would also, where necessary, inform your local authority about mutual recognition of qualifications.

7

i may have discovered officially recognised training via DRAAF website http://draaf.poitou-charentes.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Liste_Formateurs_Hygiene_Rest1_cle0e4f46.pdf

8

Hello Peter, thanks for the info..I read the discussion on angloinfo, but it's from 2010 and things have changed.

We definitely do now have to have one person with a basic hygiene certificate (though definitely not with 3 years experience in addition, as suggested by Pixie in the discussion - I think this was an invention by someone who did not understand the law at all)

My experience with nursing tells me not to trust UK training institutions to know what the French will accept, I did a supposed RMN Nursing 2000 diploma in 2004, which was "recognised across EU nations", yet to practice nursing with this in France, we're then required to do a minimum of 1 year's conversion at university first.

Also, my experience in France tells me that in every region, every civil servant will want to invent their own version of their own departement's interpretation of the law..so am very keen to find out what the actual law is...Then, if it is in my favour, I can quote it to get what I need.

I found this which sums it up, but does not give me an answer to my question about UK certificates and their validity. I can't find anything useful from the UK side either.

"Au moins une personne au sein de l’entreprise doit pouvoir justifier d’une formation en matière d’hygiène alimentaire (décret 2011-731 du 24 juin 2011 : http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr décret entré en application le 1er octobre 2012).

9

Hi Jo - this discussion (read both pages) seems to indicate that it is now necessary to have a certificate, but that it's something of an innovation as far as France is concerned. It would appear that, if you can't find something that's free, you could just produce a regularly renewed UK certificate & insist that it's valid. Given that they've only just heard of it over here, I wouldn't stand for any nonsense.