FSSC 22000 Certification Cost in Morocco: Time, Budget and Funding

What makes up the cost of FSSC 22000 certification?

Four items make up the cost: the certification body’s audit, the upgrade works, consultancy and training. On top of that comes your own teams’ time, which budgets often leave out.

The most variable item is almost always the works. A serious gap analysis puts a figure on them from the start: that is what keeps a budget on track.

Why think in terms of three years?

Because the certificate sits within a three-year cycle, with an audit every year. The scheme does not allow a surveillance audit to be skipped; a surveillance audit not carried out on time leads to suspension of the certificate. The first-year budget is therefore only part of the real cost.

Over the cycle, plan for: the initial audit and then two surveillance audits, recurring analyses (environmental monitoring, allergen verification, product testing), internal audits, refresher training and updates to the standards. A critical nonconformity adds a full on-site follow-up audit on top of the annual audits. That cost is avoidable, but management needs to know it exists.

How is audit duration calculated under Version 7?

Audit duration follows a formula set by the scheme, and the certification body is not allowed to reduce it. Part 3 of the FSSC 22000 Version 7 scheme adds a base duration calculated under ISO 22003-1:2022 to a specific FSSC time.

On top of this come at least 0.25 day of preparation and, as a general rule, at least 1 day of report writing. Surveillance audits take one third of the base duration plus the FSSC time; recertification audits take two thirds.

Two rules have a direct effect on a Moroccan site’s invoice:

• Small sites. According to the Foundation’s FAQ, a site with fewer than 20 FTE and no more than two HACCP studies can go down to 1.5 days of audit, for every type of audit. The certification body may refuse the exemption if the site is complex.
• Language. If an interpreter has to accompany the auditor, audit duration rises by at least 20%. An auditor who speaks French or Arabic, depending on the site, avoids that extra cost.

Finally, at least 50% of audit time is spent on the shop floor and on operational control. A “paper” system does not shorten anything.

How long does it take to get certified?

It depends above all on your starting point. A site already certified to ISO 22000 with compliant buildings moves quickly; a site starting with a minimal HACCP plan and building works to do takes considerably longer.

ONSSA is Morocco’s national food safety office; its sanitary authorisation or approval is the legal prerequisite for any certification project. The scheme also sets its own deadlines. Stage 2 of the initial audit must follow Stage 1 within six months at most. A major nonconformity must be closed within 28 days; otherwise, the whole of Stage 2 has to be repeated, which extends both the project and the cost. For the Version 7 deadlines, see our article on the FSSC 22000 Version 7 timeline.

Which funding can a Moroccan company use?

Training and training engineering can be partly funded; the certification audit cannot. The reference scheme is the special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF) managed by OFPPT, Morocco’s vocational training office, under its procedures manual of May 2006 and Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014.

The CSF rules to know:

• planned training delivered by an external provider: covered up to 70%;
• unplanned training: up to 40%;
• in-house training: the same rates (70% planned, 40% unplanned) applied to a retained cost of MAD 800 per day per participant;
• ceilings set according to the vocational training tax (TFP) the company has declared.

GIACs, the sector associations set up by employers’ organisations to support training engineering, can fund 70% of the training engineering (needs analysis, training plan), capped at MAD 100,000 excluding VAT.

These rates come from the CSF manual cited above and, for GIACs, from the GIAC procedures manual of March 2003 and its Amendment No. 1 of 2 June 2014. For the food industry, the contact is the food industry GIAC (GIAC Agro), and a training needs analysis linked to a certification project is eligible.

No reimbursement amount can be promised in advance: it depends on your TFP, on how your training actions are planned and on whether your file is accepted. The right reflex is a simulation based on your actual TFP before committing to the training.

The programmes of Maroc PME, the national agency for the promotion of SMEs, are also worth looking at, in particular PACT’Qualité, dedicated to certifications. It supports bringing a product or a management system into line with the chosen standard, through to certification, and its official page announces funding of 80% of the cost of consultancy and technical expertise, capped at MAD 400,000 per beneficiary, for companies with annual turnover excluding VAT of up to MAD 200 million. Whether a given FSSC 22000 project is eligible depends on Maroc PME’s review of the application.

These are Moroccan schemes. Outside Morocco, the audit duration rules above apply unchanged, since they are set by the FSSC scheme itself.

How do you avoid extra costs?

You avoid extra costs by putting figures on everything early and doing each task only once. These are the checkpoints to validate before signing anything.

• Gap analysis completed, with costed works and equipment.
  
• System built directly on Version 7, so the documentation is not written twice.
  
• Several quotes from FSSC-licensed certification bodies, each detailing the audit duration calculation.
  
• An auditor who speaks the site’s working language, to avoid interpreting time.
  
• Works scheduled outside peak production season.
  
• Training included in the annual training plan, to benefit from the CSF rate for planned training.
  
• CSF simulation carried out on your actual TFP before committing.
  
• Internal audit and mock audit completed before Stage 2, to avoid repeating it.
  
• Budget built over the three-year cycle, surveillance audits included.
  

The detailed path is described in our FSSC 22000 Version 7 consultant guide for Morocco. For sites that are already certified, the v6 to v7 upgrade plan helps budget the upgrade.