IFS Food Certification in Casablanca

IFS Food is the IFS standard that assesses a food manufacturing site: product safety, authenticity, quality, compliance with the law and with customer specifications. Version 8 has been the only one applicable since 1 January 2024. The standard is recognised by the GFSI and follows an audit logic of its own: a score per requirement, a final percentage, ten KO requirements and at least one audit in three unannounced.

In Casablanca, demand rarely arrives through a single channel. European retailers who have products made under their own brand require it from their suppliers of biscuits, confectionery or beverages. Manufacturers who buy oils or ingredients align their suppliers on the same standard. Finally, a group that steers several plants from the city may choose IFS as a common scheme to harmonise its sites. The first job is to find out, customer by customer, which standard and which level are expected.

Casablanca brings together, in a small area, almost all the situations covered by the IFS family. Food manufacturers fall under IFS Food: dairies, beverage bottlers, biscuit and confectionery makers, oil refiners and packers, makers of dry products or ready meals.

Packaging manufacturers and printers supplying the food industry can aim for IFS PACsecure, or BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7 if their customers prefer it. Traders, importers and sales agents who buy and resell without processing find their framework in IFS Broker. Logistics platforms and temperature-controlled warehouses that store other people's goods fall under IFS Logistics.

Recent units, not yet ready for a certification audit, can go first through IFS Progress, a step-by-step assessment that does not issue a certificate. In every case, the choice starts from what the site actually does, not from what it sells.

Morocco's economic capital, Casablanca concentrates a large share of the country's headquarters, buying centres and industrial management teams. The port of Casablanca, geared to containers and general cargo, remains a natural exit route for processed products bound for Europe and Africa.

Food plants are spread over several industrial zones: Ain Sebaa, Sidi Bernoussi, Moulay Rachid, Bouskoura and Lissasfa, with Mohammedia nearby. There are dairies, beverage units, biscuit and confectionery makers, oil refining and packing plants. Around them work the suppliers they depend on: plastic packaging manufacturers, carton makers, printers, chemical companies, as well as the distribution and logistics platforms that supply large retail.

This density has a direct consequence for IFS certification. A Casablanca manufacturer is rarely alone in its chain: its packaging, its transport and sometimes its supply of ingredients are provided by other companies of the same city. The IFS auditor examines its packaging specifications, the evaluation of its suppliers and the control of its service providers. When these are themselves engaged in a recognised standard, the file is easier to defend.

Casablanca is also where the decisions of many multi-site groups are made. An IFS project often begins at headquarters there, with a question of method: should all plants be prepared at the same time, or should we start with the one whose export customer is most demanding? The answer depends on the contracts at stake, the works to be planned on each site and the availability of the quality teams.

The buyers of a Casablanca manufacturer first ask for a valid IFS Food version 8 certificate, often at the higher level (Higher, from 95%), and sometimes the "Star" status obtained in an unannounced audit. For products made under a retailer's brand, they add their own specification, customer audits and regular analyses.

In this type of plant, the sensitive points recur. Multi-product biscuit and confectionery lines raise the question of allergens: validated cleaning between two recipes, labelling, handling of product rework. Bottlers must demonstrate control of glass and foreign bodies, which falls under KO requirement no. 6. Oil refiners are questioned on the authenticity of oils and on their food fraud vulnerability assessment.

Two other KO requirements weigh on companies closely tied to their local suppliers: KO no. 5, which requires a specification for each raw material, packaging included, and KO no. 4, which requires exact compliance with customer agreements on recipe and process. A missing packaging sheet or a recipe changed without written agreement can be enough to tip an audit.