ROFHYA Authorisation: Delivering France's Food-Hygiene Training in 2026

For years, delivering France’s 14-hour food-hygiene training was within reach of any declared training provider: a registration file with the DRAAF (regional agriculture directorate), an entry in the ROFHYA register, and sessions could begin. That era is over. Following decision no. 493547 of the Conseil d’État (France’s highest administrative court) of 1 July 2025, decree no. 2025-922 of 6 September 2025 rewrote article D. 233-12 of the rural code: delivering this regulatory training is now subject to authorisation. Here are the conditions, the procedure and the ongoing duties, as they apply in 2026.

What changed with decree no. 2025-922

Under decree no. 2011-731, the training could be “delivered by any training provider declared with the regional prefect”. The new regime replaces that simple declaration-plus-registration with an authorisation issued by the prefect of the region where the provider has its head office, with the file examined in practice by the DRAAF. The authority publishes the list of authorised providers at least twice a year — the list restaurateurs check before enrolling their teams.

A transitional regime organised the switch: until 1 February 2026, any declared provider could still deliver the training; providers already authorised as of 1 July 2025 obtain the new authorisation upon simple request, valid from 1 February 2026.

The five conditions for authorisation

The new article D. 233-12 requires the applicant to have:

1. A training-activity declaration with the regional prefect (the NDA — declared activity number — of article L. 6351-1 of the labour code);
2. The capacity to deliver the syllabus of the order of 12 February 2024, through a course drawing on multiple documentary sources, technical workshops and diversified teaching methods, “suited to raising awareness including among unreceptive trainees” — the decree’s wording deserves a second read: it targets the real audience of professional kitchens, not a lecture hall;
3. A formal commitment: comply with the syllabus, refrain from unfair commercial practices, use the exact regulatory name “formation spécifique en matière d’hygiène alimentaire adaptée à l’activité des établissements de restauration commerciale”, and submit an annual activity report before 31 January;
4. At least one competent trainer in food hygiene — the syllabus additionally requires trainers with professional experience in food service;
5. The certificate provided for by article L. 6316-1 of the labour code — in other words the Qualiopi certification. This is the most structural change: Qualiopi is no longer just the key to OPCO funding, it is a legal condition for operating on this training. If you are not yet certified, start with our guide to the 32 indicators of the national quality framework.

The file and the filing windows

The application is filed between 1 and 31 May or between 1 and 30 November, with the authority of the head-office region. It has two parts:

Part	Documents
Administrative file	Signed commitment; Qualiopi certificate (L. 6316-1); name and capacity of each trainer
Pedagogical file	A pedagogical scenario detailing content, duration, methods and resources — in particular the hands-on scenarios with equipment handling; the training materials; the booklet handed to each trainee

Several DRAAFs run submissions through the demarches-simplifiees.fr portal; the ministry for food specifies the file’s content and transmission details by technical instruction. Plan ahead: a file that fails in May waits until November.

The pedagogical scenario is the heart of the file. The 2024 syllabus structures the 14 hours into three domains — food and consumer risks; regulation (the EU “hygiene package”, traceability, HACCP principles, official controls); the sanitary control plan — with a mandatory in-person core: at least two hours in the trainees’ presence per seven-hour period, devoted in particular to hands-on scenarios. This regulatory choice matches the research: the meta-analysis by Soon, Baines and Seaman published in 2012 in the Journal of Food Protection shows that food-safety training clearly improves professionals’ knowledge but far more weakly their attitudes and practices — active, contextualised formats are what close that gap (see the study). A qualitative study by Seaman and Eves (2010, Food Control) adds that how trainees and their managers perceive the training provider conditions the transfer of learning into the kitchen (see the study).

After authorisation: your permanent obligations

The authorisation lives — and can die. The authorised provider must:

• state on each end-of-training certificate the date of its authorisation and the capacity of the authority that issued it, plus the date and name of the act defining the syllabus;
• submit before 31 January each year the report of the previous year’s activity — failure triggers suspension of the authorisation until regularised;
• report changes: name, contact details, trainer list, pedagogical scenario, trainee booklet.

The authority carries out checks on documents and on site. It suspends or revokes the authorisation for non-compliance with the syllabus, unfair commercial practices, failure to use the regulatory name, or loss of a condition (trainer, Qualiopi…). And a minimum-activity rule applies: no session delivered over two successive accounting years = revocation. An authorisation obtained “just in case” will not survive without real sessions.

The market behind the constraint

Why endure this procedure? Because demand is structural: every restaurant opening, every departure of a trained person, every food truck that launches creates a training need — the obligation covers traditional restaurants, self-service outlets and fast food, as detailed in our article on the scope of the food-hygiene training obligation. Market prices (generally €200 to €500 per trainee according to the administration’s guidance) and the possible OPCO funding for employees make it a recurring, profitable training product for a well-organised provider.

Take action

Check your five conditions — NDA, pedagogical capacity, commitment, competent trainer, Qualiopi —, build your two files and aim for the next filing window (1–31 May or 1–30 November). Our guide Mandatory food-hygiene training (14 h) and ROFHYA registration gathers the texts and the process, and the free ebook walks you through the whole journey, provider side and restaurateur side.