ISO 22000 Certification Cost in Morocco: Timeline and Move to FSSC

What makes up the cost of ISO 22000 certification?

Five items and one resource: the certification body’s audit, works, testing, consulting, training, and your teams’ time. Only the first can be read in a certification body’s quote; the others depend on your starting gap, which the gap analysis establishes.

The most variable item is almost always the works. In our gap analyses, it is most often a damaged floor, missing separation of flows or insufficient ventilation that moves the budget. That is why a serious budget starts with a site visit, never with a package price.

Think over three years, too. The certificate sits within a cycle made of a two-stage initial audit, two annual surveillance audits and a recertification. The first-year budget is only part of the real cost.

How does the certification body calculate the audit duration?

Under ISO 22003-1:2022, the standard for bodies that certify food safety management systems. The FSSC 22000 Version 7 scheme, which uses it as a basis, sums up the formula: a duration Ds equal to the sum of a basic time linked to the food chain category, a time linked to the number of HACCP studies and a time linked to the headcount in full-time equivalents (FTE).

Three parameters therefore weigh on the duration of an ISO 22000 audit:

• the category: food processing is not calculated like a warehouse or a trading business;
• the number of HACCP studies: each family of products or processes with distinct hazards adds time;
• the headcount: counted in FTE; ask the certification body to specify how it counts seasonal workers.

The values of these three times and the rule for counting seasonal workers are set in ISO 22003-1:2022, a paid text: ask the certification body to attach its detailed calculation to its offer.

The number of sites, off-site activities, and the time for preparation and report writing are added. A serious quote details the calculation; a quote that announces a duration without justifying it deserves a written question.

How long does it take to get certified?

It depends on the starting point, and above all on the period needed to produce evidence. The Stage 2 auditor reads records completed during real production: a system written in a few weeks does not shorten that period.

For a Moroccan plant, the starting point is usually its sanitary authorisation from ONSSA (Office national de sécurité sanitaire des produits alimentaires, Morocco’s national food safety office) and the HACCP plan filed with it.

Two factors often stretch the schedule of a Moroccan plant: production seasons, which rule out works and tie up managers, and the availability of the certification body’s auditors on the desired dates. Book the audit date early, and count backwards.

What will the move to FSSC 22000 cost afterwards?

Less than a first certification, because the ISO 22000 foundation is reused, but more than a routine ISO 22000 audit. FSSC 22000 Version 7 adds audit time, mandatory prerequisite programmes and additional requirements, and it changes the rules of the cycle.

Small organisations have a rule of their own: according to the Foundation FSSC FAQ, a site with fewer than 20 FTE and no more than two HACCP studies can go down to 1.5 audit days.

The choice of certification body at the ISO 22000 stage matters. An FSSC-licensed body must already be accredited for ISO 22000:2018 under ISO/IEC 17021-1 and ISO 22003-1:2022 (Part 4 of the scheme): it can carry both certifications. However, the transfer provided for by the scheme only covers existing FSSC 22000 certificates. For a site already certified to ISO 22000, the scheme provides for a transition audit (Part 3, §5.8): the accredited ISO 22000 certificate must still be valid and cover an equivalent scope, but it does not have to come from the same certification body. This audit starts a new certification cycle, meets the objectives of a stage 2 audit and lasts at least two-thirds of Ds plus the FSSC time, without going below the scheme’s minimum durations; a stage 1 audit is at the certification body’s discretion. It leads to an FSSC 22000 certificate valid for three years. The FSSC cost items are detailed in our article on FSSC 22000 certification cost in Morocco, and the full path in the case study of a Moroccan dairy.

Which funding can you use, and how do you avoid extra costs?

Training can be partly funded, the certification audit cannot. For Moroccan companies, the project’s training courses (ISO 22000, HACCP team, internal audit) may fall under the special training contracts (CSF) of OFPPT, under the CSF procedures manual (May 2006, amended by Amendment No. 2 of 2 June 2014), the Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail, Morocco’s vocational training office: up to 70% for planned training delivered by an external provider and 40% for unplanned training, with ceilings set according to the vocational training tax (TFP) the company has declared. The GIACs, inter-professional advisory groups organised by sector, can fund 70% of training engineering, capped at MAD 100,000 excluding VAT, under the GIAC procedures manual (March 2003, Amendment No. 1 of 2 June 2014); for the food industry, this is the food-industry GIAC (GIAC Agro). These figures remain indicative, before ceilings, with no commitment.

No amount can be promised in advance: it depends on your TFP, on your planning and on the acceptance of the file. Our CSF and OFPPT funding page offers a simulation based on your actual situation.

Before signing a consulting or certification quote, check these points.

• An on-site gap analysis has costed the works, the equipment and the testing.
  
• Your customers’ written requirements say whether ISO 22000 is enough or whether FSSC 22000 will follow.
  
• The PRPs will be built on ISO 22002-100:2025 and the sector part, so they will not have to be redone.
  
• Several quotes from accredited certification bodies detail the audit duration calculation over the three-year cycle.
  
• The proposed auditor speaks the site’s working language.
  
• The schedule places the works and the audit outside peak season.
  
• The training courses are in the training plan and have been simulated for the CSF before being committed.
  
• The food safety team’s time is budgeted, not just the external invoices.