HACCP and ISO 22000 in Agadir

HACCP as described by the Codex Alimentarius in its General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969, substantially revised in 2020) is the common basis of all food safety schemes. In a cannery, it concentrates on a few well-identified critical points, the sterilisation schedule first of all; in a packing station, it relies more on good hygiene practices needing greater attention. In Morocco, it sits alongside the ONSSA sanitary approval or authorisation; fishery products fall under approval.

ISO 22000:2018 organises this plan into a certifiable management system. In Agadir, demand comes mostly from export. European and British buyers of canned goods, frozen products or fresh fruit and vegetables expect a flawless HACCP plan and, often, a GFSI-recognised scheme. ISO 22000 alone is not one: it suits industrial customers who accept it and prepares the move to FSSC 22000 version 7. For the European Union, a fishery products establishment must appear on its list of authorised exporters.

The first group is the seafood industries: canneries of sardines, mackerel or tuna, freezing and deep-freezing units, processing workshops located near the port, in Ait Melloul, in Tassila or in the Haliopolis industrial park devoted to seafood. Their processes include well-known critical steps, chilled receipt, seaming, sterilisation, freezing, and their buyers know these processes in detail.

The second group is the region's packing stations: tomatoes, peppers and other early vegetables, citrus, berries. They receive the output of their own farms or of partner growers, sort it, pack it and ship it under cold, often for several customers with different requirements.

The service also concerns companies producing food-grade argan oil and other argan-based products meant for consumption, for which roasting, pressing, storage and packing must be controlled and proven, as well as the cold stores and packaging manufacturers working for these sectors.

Agadir is the main economic centre of Souss-Massa. The region is a major production basin for early vegetables, tomatoes and peppers first, but also citrus and berries, grown largely for the European Union and the United Kingdom. These crops pass through numerous packing stations, which operate to the rhythm of campaigns and the shipping programmes set by their customers.

The port of Agadir is a fishing and commercial port. It feeds a varied seafood industry: canneries, freezing and deep-freezing units, fishery product processing. The Haliopolis industrial park was developed to host this type of activity, and the industrial zones of Ait Melloul and Tassila bring together part of the region's plants. The region also produces argan, whose oil and derived products are valued in Morocco and abroad.

These two big sectors do not face the same hazards. The cannery must prevent the survival of spore-forming germs through sterilisation, guarantee the tightness of the cans and prevent histamine formation in the species concerned. The packing station mainly controls contamination brought by water, hands, surfaces and crates, and depends on its growers' practices for pesticide residues. They nevertheless share a constraint: volumes concentrated in certain periods, seasonal teams, and foreign buyers who can audit without notice or ask for evidence with every shipment.

A HACCP plan in Agadir must therefore be accurate on the ground, kept up by the operators themselves, and ready before the peak of activity.

For canned goods and frozen fishery products, the European or British buyer first checks the establishment's listing among those authorised to export, then the certificate, often BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9, IFS Food version 8 or FSSC 22000 version 7, and the HACCP plan that underpins it. It asks for sterilisation cycle records, seam inspections, the histamine sampling plan and results by batch. For fresh fruit and vegetables, it wants pesticide residue analyses, water analyses, temperature records and traceability that goes back to the plot.

In audits, nonconformities come back in the same places. In canneries, the sterilisation schedule has no up-to-date validation file for each format and each recipe, or a new format was launched without the schedule being reviewed. Seam inspections are carried out but not recorded by seamer and by head. Can cooling water is not monitored. In stations, the hazard analysis does not distinguish between products, wash water has no criterion, and seasonal workers have no evidence of training.