ISO 45001 Certification in Agadir

ISO 45001:2018 is the international standard for occupational health and safety management. It is the only version open to certification; its revision is expected in 2027. The standard is voluntary, but it obliges the company to identify its legal obligations, keep to them and show it.

In Souss-Massa, the question arrives through export customers. The European Union and UK retail chains and importers that buy tomatoes, peppers, citrus and berries ask for social audits and ethical commitments in which worker safety holds a large place: protective equipment, first aid, chemicals, working conditions of seasonal workers. The customers of canneries and deep-freezing units ask similar questions.

Many of these sites are already certified in food safety, to BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9, IFS Food version 8 or ISO 22000:2018. These standards protect the product and the consumer; they do not cover the health and safety of those who work on the lines. ISO 45001 fills this gap, building on the organisation that already exists.

The service concerns first the region's packing stations: tomatoes, peppers and other early vegetables, citrus, berries. Their workforces rise sharply during the campaign, and the same risks return every year: cold rooms, handling of crates and pallets, forklifts, wet floors, cleaning products.

It is then aimed at seafood manufacturers: fish canneries, freezing and deep-freezing units, processing workshops set up near the port of Agadir or in the Haliopolis industrial park. People work there with knives, in damp and cold, at high rates, next to refrigeration installations and boilers.

It also targets argan processing units and companies in the Ait Melloul and Tassila zones: manufacturing workshops, cold stores, cold chain, transport and maintenance providers that work for the stations and canneries. For these providers, a recognised health and safety system eases access to their customers' sites.

Agadir is the economic centre of the Souss-Massa region, a major agricultural region geared to export. The plain produces early vegetables, in particular tomatoes and peppers, citrus and berries, shipped largely to the European Union and the United Kingdom. A tight network of packing stations receives, sorts, packs and cools these products before they leave.

The port of Agadir, both a fishing port and a commercial port, has given rise to a seafood industry: canneries, freezing and deep-freezing, processing of fishery products. The Haliopolis industrial park is dedicated to these activities. The Ait Melloul and Tassila industrial zones host other workshops, warehouses and services. The region also makes use of argan, with processing units.

These activities have one point in common: they are paced by seasons, that of the harvests or that of fishing. During the peaks, workforces swell, days lengthen and new operators arrive at the workstations. This is precisely when the risk of accident rises, and when supervisors have the least time.

The hazards are well identified: cold and cold rooms, refrigeration installations, water and slippery floors, knives, repetitive movements, forklifts, cleaning and disinfection products. An ISO 45001 system deals with them before the campaign, with the operators, instead of discovering them through an accident or a customer audit.

European and British fruit and vegetable buyers check, during social audits, the presence of trained first aiders and first aid kits, the free supply of suitable protective equipment, separate storage of treatment and cleaning products, access to drinking water and sanitary facilities, and the training of seasonal workers at their workstation. They expect dated corrective actions and check their closure.

The customers of canneries and deep-freezing units, often already demanding on hygiene, are increasingly interested in working conditions on cutting lines and in freezing tunnels.

In certification audits, Agadir sites stumble on recurring findings. Cold rooms have no working inside release device or alarm for a person locked in. The ammonia risk, where the refrigeration installation uses it, is not covered by a tested emergency plan. Cut-resistant gloves are not worn or not suitable. Chlorine and acid products are mixed during cleaning. Finally, the risk assessment was done off season, without the seasonal workers or the real rates.