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Food Safety

Quebec MAPAQ Inspection Readiness Check for Restaurants

A free self-check for Quebec restaurants: score your kitchen on what MAPAQ and Montréal inspectors look at, including the hygiene training rules.

TenorOps teamPublished 5 min read

Who will be inspecting you

Most Quebec restaurants deal with MAPAQ, the Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation. If you're on the island of Montréal, the inspector is more likely to come from the City of Montréal, which inspects restaurants and grocery stores as MAPAQ's agent. The badge on the jacket differs. The rulebook doesn't. Both apply the Regulation respecting food made under the Food Products Act.

So a group with a café in Verdun and a restaurant in Sherbrooke can run both kitchens to one standard, even though two different inspection services will visit them.

Our Quebec inspection readiness check is built on that regulation. It has about a dozen questions, takes a few minutes, and shows a score out of 100 with your biggest gaps as soon as you're done.

Quebec's training rule is a choice, not a quota

Quebec handles food hygiene and safety training differently from most provinces, and the difference trips people up. There is one fixed requirement and then a choice between two ways of meeting the rest.

The fixed part comes from section 2.2.4.1. Every operator must give responsibility for food hygiene and safety to someone who holds the food establishment manager certificate, the one behind the 12-hour gestionnaire course. It can be the owner. It can be a trusted employee. It can't be nobody, and it can't be someone with only the shorter manipulateur d'aliments (food handler) certificate.

Then section 2.2.4.2 gives you two options:

  1. Presence. The responsible manager, or at least one other employee with a manager or food handler certificate, is on the premises during operating hours.
  2. Ten per cent. At least 10% of the staff who prepare food or wash equipment that touches food hold a manager or food handler certificate, counting the responsible manager. Under this option no certified person has to be on site.

Plenty of operators think the 10% figure is the whole rule. Others assume a manager has to be in the building from open to close. Neither is quite right. A small kitchen with one certified manager who is always there during operating hours meets the first option. A bigger operation with a large team and a manager who covers several sites may find the second easier. MAPAQ publishes a calculation sheet that shows how to round the 10% for your headcount.

The check asks about the responsible manager and your coverage as two separate questions, because they fail for different reasons. One is about who holds the right certificate, the other about how shifts are staffed. The Quebec restaurant food safety checklist goes through the course types and how to register with an authorized trainer.

The register is how you show it

Section 2.2.4.3 is the record that backs all of this up. If the regulation's training rules apply to you, you keep a register at the establishment showing:

  • the number of people assigned to preparing food or washing and cleaning equipment that comes into contact with it, including the person responsible
  • the names of everyone who holds a manager or food handler certificate

MAPAQ's guidance adds the name of the person responsible for food hygiene and safety, and supplies a template. When a certified employee leaves, their name stays in the register for 12 months. The register has to be kept at the operating premises, which matters for groups that keep HR files at head office.

Certificates belong to the person who earned them, not the employer, and MAPAQ says they stay valid when someone changes jobs. A cook who arrives already certified can go straight into your register. Keep a copy of their certificate, and they keep the original.

How ready is your kitchen? Score it against Quebec's rules in about three minutes. Take the free check →

What else the check asks

The rest of the questions cover what an inspector looks at in any Quebec kitchen:

  • temperature checks for fridges, freezers and hot holding, written down
  • cooling cooked food in bulk
  • handwashing sinks that are stocked and kept clear
  • staff reporting illness and staying off food when sick
  • sanitizer and dishwasher testing
  • a cleaning schedule with sign-offs
  • storage order, covering and labels
  • allergen information
  • signs of pests and pest control records

If you're on the island, the Montréal food establishment inspection guide explains how the city's inspection service works. The City of Montréal also publishes a list of food businesses convicted of offences, which is one more reason to fix the gaps before an inspector finds them.

What you get at the end

The check gives you an instant score from 0 to 100 and your top gaps, weighted so that problems closest to a health hazard come first. It's a self-check, not an inspection, and only MAPAQ or the City of Montréal can give you an official result.

Enter your email and you'll get the full report: every gap, a fix plan for each one, and links to printable checklists. Those checklists can also be opened in a free TenorOps account.

Running sites in more than one province? The national overview links every province and territory's check. Otherwise, take the Quebec check and have your training register to hand while you answer.

Official sources