Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Food Safety Glossary

A set of basic operating and hygiene practices that ensure food is consistently produced and controlled to safe quality standards. Good Manufacturing Practice, usually shortened to GMP, describes the foundational practices a food manufacturer follows to make sure products are consistently produced and controlled to appropriate quality and safety standards. It covers premises and equipment, cleaning and sanitation, personal hygiene, pest control, raw-material control and documentation. GMP is often described as a prerequisite program: the baseline conditions that must be in place before a HACCP plan can work effectively. Rather than controlling one specific hazard at a critical point, GMP maintains the overall environment and routines that keep hazards from being introduced in the first place. In an Australian food-manufacturing setting, GMP shows up as clean and well-maintained premises, documented cleaning schedules, staff hygiene rules, controlled receipt and storage of ingredients, and records that demonstrate these routines are followed. These practices support compliance with the Chapter 3 food safety standards and underpin any HACCP-based program. GMP also provides the foundation that third-party certification schemes such as SQF and BRCGS build on, since those standards assume solid prerequisite programs are already in place. Businesses treat GMP as everyday discipline rather than a one-off exercise, because auditors and customers expect to see it operating continuously. A Sydney sauce manufacturer runs documented daily cleaning of its filling line, enforces hand-washing and clean-uniform rules for staff, and keeps pest-control records, all of which form its Good Manufacturing Practice foundation before its HACCP plan is applied.