HACCP and ISO 22000 in Casablanca

HACCP is the method of hazard analysis and control of critical points described by the Codex Alimentarius in its General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969), substantially revised in 2020. In Morocco, it underpins the self-monitoring programme expected of every establishment authorised or approved by ONSSA under Law 28-07. ISO 22000:2018 goes further: it is a management system standard that integrates this plan, justified prerequisite programmes, the classification of measures as CCP or OPRP, internal audit and management review.

In Casablanca, demand comes mostly from the local supply chain. Food groups that buy ingredients or packaging, retailers that have products made under their own brand and customers that subcontract their storage want a supplier able to show a system verified by a third party. ISO 22000 often meets this expectation. When the customer requires a GFSI-recognised scheme, the same foundation then serves for FSSC 22000 version 7.

Those first concerned are the processing plants of Ain Sebaa, Sidi Bernoussi, Moulay Rachid or Bouskoura: dairies, beverage makers, biscuit and confectionery makers, oil refiners and packers. Their lines often produce many references sharing the same equipment, which weighs on allergen analysis and on cleaning between productions.

Next come the businesses that have no recipe but touch food. Packaging manufacturers and printers supplying the food industry, numerous between Casablanca and Mohammedia, are questioned about the migration of inks and materials. Cold stores and distribution platforms must prove that temperatures are held and flows are kept separate. Suppliers of ingredients, additives and intermediate products are audited by industrial customers who require a documented system.

Finally, the headquarters of groups that run several plants in Morocco are looking for a common HACCP method, applied in the same way from one site to the next.

Casablanca is Morocco's economic capital and its leading business centre. Its port handles containers and general cargo, and the city concentrates the headquarters of large groups, distributors and logistics providers. The industrial zones of Ain Sebaa, Sidi Bernoussi, Moulay Rachid, Bouskoura and Lissasfa host plants of all sizes, from the family workshop to the continuous production unit. Nearby Mohammedia extends this fabric, and the Nouaceur area, near Mohammed V airport, has developed around aeronautics.

Food processing sits alongside packaging and printing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, plastics, metalworking, automotive components and logistics. This proximity has a direct effect on food safety: the same packaging supplier may deliver to a dairy, a pharmaceutical laboratory and a detergent maker, and the same warehouse may store food and non-food products side by side. Customers know it and ask precise questions about cross-contamination.

Casablanca is also where many listing decisions are made. The purchasing and quality departments of groups and retailers set their supplier specifications there, organise their audits there and compare files there. A manufacturer who wants to enter these circuits must present a HACCP plan that matches the real line, an up-to-date ONSSA authorisation or approval, and more and more often an ISO 22000 certificate or an equivalent scheme. For a multi-product site, the difficulty lies less in the method than in the consistency between references, lines and records.

Casablanca buyers almost always start with the same documents: the ONSSA sanitary authorisation or approval number, the HACCP plan with its diagrams, the list of CCPs and OPRPs with their validation evidence, and the certificate if there is one. Industrial groups add their supplier specification, with requirements on allergens, traceability, complaint handling and notification of changes. Retailers that have products made under their own brand often run their own audits, in addition to the certificate.

In audits, sites in the region stumble on recurring points. On multi-product lines, the allergen analysis ignores changeovers and product rework. Clean-in-place in dairies and beverage plants is not validated: concentration and temperature are recorded without proof that the cycle is effective. Packaging manufacturers have no up-to-date declaration of compliance for each food-contact material. Warehouses monitor cold room temperature but not that of the docks. Finally, the traceability test fails because ingredient batches are not linked to finished product batches in the IT system.