BRCGS Food Certification in Rabat

BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 is a food safety standard recognised by the GFSI. It applies to sites that manufacture, process or pack food, and it is audited by a certification body approved by BRCGS.

In the capital region, two certification logics coexist. Ministries, public institutions and large public buyers mostly ask for ISO certificates in their tenders. BRCGS, for its part, comes from private buyers: British retailers, European importers, manufacturers who buy ingredients or have products made under their brand. A company in the region that wants to export, or to enter an industrial customer, often discovers this requirement at the time of listing, with a deadline already set.

The standard does not require prior ISO certification. It requires a HACCP plan based on the Codex (CXC 1-1969, rev. 2020), a documented management system, a food safety culture carried by management, and premises and processes controlled day to day.

The service first targets small and medium-sized processing units located in the zones of Ain Atiq and Temara, or around Skhirat. An SME that makes bakery and industrial pastry products, dairy products, spices and condiments or ready meals, and wants to move from local sales to export or to manufacturing for an industrial customer, typically faces a BRCGS request.

It also targets sites already certified to ISO 9001:2026 or ISO 22000:2018 whose customer now requires a GFSI-recognised scheme. Their system exists; it has to be completed and, above all, made visible on the line.

For the smallest structures, still far from a full audit, the BRCGS START! programme offers a first step in two levels, Basic and Intermediate, which BRCGS presents as a stepping stone to Food Safety Issue 9, provided the buyer accepts it.

Packaging manufacturers in the region fall under BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7.

Rabat is the administrative capital of the Kingdom and the centre of the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region. Its economy rests largely on administration, services, information technology and building and public works, with the Technopolis of Sale for technology and service companies.

Industry is more scattered there than in the large export hubs. It concentrates in the industrial zones of Ain Atiq and Temara and towards Skhirat, on the axis linking the capital to Casablanca. There is light industry and food units that serve first of all the domestic market.

Many of these companies have structured their quality around two levers: the HACCP approach built for the ONSSA sanitary authorisation or approval, and an ISO certification obtained to answer public contracts. The move to BRCGS is then a clear step up. The standard is more prescriptive, the auditor observes the line as much as the documents, questions the operators, and part of the audits is done without warning. A company used to preparing for an audit on a fixed date must learn to be ready every day.

The region also forms a whole with Kenitra, further north, where the Gharb plain and its packing stations are located. Ingredient suppliers, cold chain providers and analysis laboratories often serve both cities.

Finally, it is in Rabat, in Hay Riad, that ACG's head office is located. For a company in the region, the consultant is close by, and the project moves at the pace of the teams rather than the pace of travel.

A buyer who requires BRCGS from a supplier in the Rabat region expects a valid Food Safety Issue 9 certificate covering the products delivered, and often access to the audit report. It sometimes specifies the audit programme it accepts, announced or unannounced, and the minimum grade it tolerates. These points must be obtained in writing before launching the project.

For an SME coming from an ISO approach, nonconformities rarely concern documentation alone. They concern what the auditor sees: cleanliness and upkeep of premises, separation of zones, pest control, personnel hygiene, calibration of measuring instruments. They also concern requirements specific to BRCGS that ISO systems cover little: a food safety culture plan with indicators, food fraud vulnerability assessment, food defence, environmental monitoring of the production area, annual traceability and recall tests.

One last sensitive point: the management review and the decisions it takes. The auditor looks for proof that management knows the system's results and acts, not just a signed record.