BRCGS Food Certification in Agadir

BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 is a GFSI-recognised food safety standard, audited by certification bodies approved by BRCGS. It applies to sites that process, preserve or pack food, which covers a sardine cannery as well as a fish freezing unit or a tomato station.

A large part of the vegetables, citrus and berries of Souss-Massa goes to the European Union and the United Kingdom. British retailers and the importers that supply them commonly ask for BRCGS; German and French customers more often ask for IFS Food version 8. For canned goods and seafood, the buyer may be a retail chain, a brand or a manufacturer, and each specifies its scheme in the contract.

In a cannery, the audit goes well beyond hygiene of the premises: it covers validation of heat treatments, integrity of cans and seams, control of histamine for the species concerned, and the food safety culture carried by management.

The service is aimed at manufacturers of the port of Agadir and the zones of Ait Melloul, Tassila and Haliopolis: sardine and mackerel canneries, fish and seafood freezing units, filleting and semi-preserve workshops for human consumption. It is also aimed at the packing stations for tomatoes, peppers, citrus and berries of Souss-Massa that supply Europe under retailer brands.

It also concerns food-grade argan processors: roasted or virgin argan oil, amlou and other preparations packed for export. Argan-based cosmetic products fall under other standards than Food Safety.

Some canneries make their own cans or sell them to third parties. The can-forming line may then fall under BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, alongside Food Safety for the manufacture of the canned goods. This point is settled at the start of the project, because it changes the scope, the calendar and the number of audits.

Agadir is the industrial gateway of Souss-Massa, a region geared to export. The Souss plain produces early vegetables, in particular tomatoes and peppers, citrus and berries, largely sold in the European Union and the United Kingdom. These are off-season crops, which imposes a tight calendar: packing stations must be ready, and their certificate valid, before the winter markets open.

The port of Agadir, both a fishing port and a commercial port, feeds a set of canneries, freezing units and seafood processing workshops, spread between the port area, Ait Melloul, Tassila and the Haliopolis industrial park, dedicated to seafood industries. The region is also argan country, part of whose output becomes food oil and preparations.

For a BRCGS project, this fabric has three consequences. Raw material is seasonal and irregular: fish arrivals depend on landings, harvests on the weather, which complicates the planning of works and audits. Hazards are specific and well identified: histamine in pelagic fish, botulism risk in poorly sterilised cans, parasites in raw fish, pesticide residues on vegetables. Finally, buyers can compare the region's suppliers in the BRCGS directory, grade included, which makes the preparation of each audit a commercial matter as much as a technical one.

For a cannery or a freezing unit, the buyer asks for a BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 certificate whose scope covers the species and presentations delivered, as well as product-specific evidence: histamine results, sterilisation or stability studies, heavy metal analyses depending on the species, and, for some retailers, responsible fishing requirements. For a vegetable station, it asks for the station's certificate, that of the farms supplying it and a residue analysis plan.

In audits, the same points often come back. In canneries: complete and reviewed sterilisation records, heat treatments validated for each format, seam checks at a defined frequency, fate of nonconforming cans. In freezing: fish temperature from receipt to dispatch, water and ice of potable quality, separation between raw products and clean areas. In stations: hygiene of seasonal workers and quality of wash water. Everywhere: ageing premises to be restored, pests near port areas, and a food safety culture that management must prove through decisions and resources.