IFS Food Certification in Rabat

IFS Food is a private standard, published by IFS and recognised by the GFSI. It assesses the safety, authenticity and quality of the products of a food site, as well as compliance with the law and with commitments made to customers. Only version 8 has applied since 1 January 2024.

In the Rabat region, two sources of requirements must be distinguished. Public tenders, numerous in the administrative capital, mostly ask for ISO certificates, such as ISO 9001:2026 or ISO 22000:2018. IFS Food, for its part, is not an administration requirement: private customers demand it, European retailers, brands that entrust their manufacturing to a subcontractor, manufacturers who buy ingredients. A company in Temara or Ain Atiq aiming for a first export contract, or for a listing with a retailer aligned on GFSI standards, therefore discovers IFS at the time of the commercial negotiation. The first step is to obtain in writing the standard and the level expected.

The companies concerned around Rabat are most often food processing SMEs, for example in industrial bakery and biscuits, dairy products, ready meals, spices and dry goods, packing of foodstuffs for large retail. Many already work with a HACCP plan and the ONSSA sanitary authorisation, without ever having faced an IFS scoring.

For them, two routes exist. The first aims directly at IFS Food version 8 certification, when the customer requires it in the short term and the site can bring its premises up to standard. The second goes through IFS Progress, which has replaced IFS Global Markets: a two-level assessment that measures progress towards certification, without issuing a certificate. It suits a recent unit or a company that must first invest, provided the buyer accepts it in writing as a stage.

Also concerned are warehouses and logistics providers on the outskirts, for IFS Logistics, and food trading companies, for IFS Broker.

Rabat is Morocco's administrative capital and the centre of the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra region. The city lives first of all from ministries, public institutions and services. Technopolis, in Sale, hosts mostly technology and service companies. Industry is found on the outskirts: the industrial zones of Ain Atiq and Temara to the south, Skhirat further along the coast, with building and public works, light industry and food processing.

This fabric explains the form IFS projects take around Rabat. They most often concern an SME, with a tight management team and a quality manager who holds several functions. Premises were sometimes designed before questions of flows, risk zones or foreign bodies arose. The diagnostic must therefore separate very early what is organisational, which is corrected quickly, from what is works, which require a budget and a schedule.

Proximity to the administrations also has a practical effect. Procedures linked to sanitary authorisation, official controls or public tenders take up a real share of the quality team's time. The IFS project must fit into this calendar, not add to it as one more load. This is often what decides its pace: a gradual build-up, short steps and evidence produced every week, rather than an effort concentrated in the last weeks before the audit.

A buyer who asks an SME in the region for IFS Food expects a valid version 8 certificate and looks closely at the level obtained: Foundation from 75% to less than 95%, Higher above. They also check that the certificate's scope really covers the products they buy. For a first listing, they may conduct their own supplier audit even before the certification audit.

For a site discovering IFS, difficulties rarely come from the HACCP plan itself, often well known. They come from what surrounds it. KO no. 1 expects management that assumes its food safety responsibilities and can explain them to the auditor. KO no. 8 requires an internal audit programme covering all IFS requirements, which is often missing in a company that has only known HACCP. KO no. 10 checks that corrective actions address causes, not just symptoms.

Add to this the food safety culture plan, the assessment of fraud and malicious acts, and the traceability test, which must quickly find the materials, packaging and customers of a batch.