Are there official fees for obtaining approval?
Yes, but they are not in the procedural texts. Law 28-07, Decree 2-10-473, Order 244-13 and procedure code CP 05 of ONSSA (Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits Alimentaires, Morocco’s national food safety office) describe the file, the visit and the issue without mentioning any fee. ONSSA’s service tariffs page refers to the decision of 7 April 2025 (in French) that sets the list and prices of its services, together with an electronic payment service.
Sanitary approval and authorisation are among these paid services. Check the current amounts, any special cases and the payment arrangements in ONSSA’s fee schedule, or with the provincial inspection service, before filing.
The budget for a sanitary approval (agrément) or authorisation (autorisation) remains first and foremost a compliance budget. It is your premises, your equipment and your system that cost the most, not the filing. For an investor modelling a new plant or the takeover of an existing one, the figure belongs with the works and the start-up plan, not with administrative fees.
Which cost items weigh most on the budget?
The building, almost always. Articles 32 and 33 of the decree apply to all food establishments, approved or authorised: they decide what will have to be built, moved or replaced.
Cost item | Regulatory requirement | What makes the cost vary |
|---|---|---|
Building and layout | Forward flow with no backtracking, separate lines, clean and dirty areas, direct removal of waste, smooth and washable surfaces, openings protected against insects, ventilation with no airflow from dirty to clean (Art. 32) | A building designed for the activity or existing premises to rework; a new project drawn with these flows avoids rework |
Toilets and staff facilities | Sufficient toilets with no direct access to production areas, facilities suited to the headcount and separated by gender (Art. 32) | The headcount declared in the technical data sheet, seasonal workers included |
Water | Drinking water from the network or from the site’s own system, separate non-potable water circuits, ice and steam that comply, controlled cooling water for sealed containers (Art. 32 and 33) | Connection to the network or a borehole with treatment, needs for ice or steam |
Cold and storage | Storage at a controlled temperature that can be checked and, where necessary, recorded; separate places for packaging and for cleaning products (Art. 32) | Perishable products or not, storage capacities announced |
Equipment | Materials easy to clean and disinfect, control devices where needed, corrosion-resistant facilities for cleaning tools (Art. 32 and 33) | New equipment designed for hygiene or existing equipment to adapt |
Plans and file | Site location plan at 1:1000, general layout plan at 1:100 to 1:300 with flows, technical data sheet with ten headings (Order 244-13) | Plans to redraw or complete |
Documentation system | Approval: HACCP own-check programme (Art. 34 and 41); authorisation: manual based on a good sanitary practice guide | Whether an approved guide exists for the activity, number of products and lines |
Testing | Recognised in-house or contract laboratories (Art. 42); for plant products exported, testing by ONSSA laboratories or laboratories it approves | Testing plan, frequency, destination of products |
Staff | Hygiene training for food handlers and training of those in charge of HACCP or the guide (Art. 63), medical surveillance paid by the operator (Art. 65) | Headcount, turnover, seasonality |
Day-to-day hygiene | Compliant cleaning and disinfection products, a cleaning plan recorded every day (Art. 66 and 68), pest control | Size of the site, outsourced cleaning or pest control |
One more point to anticipate: Article 62 of the decree allows a production manager trained in food hygiene, or with suitable experience, to be required for certain categories of establishment. Those categories, and the content and duration of the required training or experience, are set by ministerial order: check with ONSSA’s provincial office whether your activity is concerned before including it in the budget.
Why does approval cost more than authorisation?
Because of the system, not the walls. Both regimes share the same requirements for premises and equipment. Approval adds an own-check programme that complies with Moroccan standard NM 08.0.002, HACCP management system, or with an equivalent system: hazard analysis, critical control points, validated limits, monitoring, corrective actions, verification. That calls for a trained team, validation studies and more records.
Authorisation rests on a procedures manual based on the good sanitary practice guide for the activity. When an approved guide exists, it provides most of the framework; ONSSA publishes twelve, approved between 2015 and 2021. When there is none, the manual must be built from Articles 32 and 33 of the decree, with risk identification and traceability, and the workload then comes close to a HACCP project.
For an exporter, the difference shrinks further. The buyer will almost always ask for a HACCP plan, and BRCGS, IFS and FSSC 22000 all require one. Building that plan for the ONSSA file avoids paying twice for the same work; our HACCP plan and ONSSA approval page describes the method.
How long should you allow?
Preparation time dominates, and it is the only part that depends entirely on you. The texts frame three steps; they set neither a total duration nor a deadline for issue after a favourable visit.
Step | Deadline set by the texts | What lengthens it on your side |
|---|---|---|
Preparation of the site and the file | None | A building permit to obtain, works, plans to redraw, a manual to write, a team to train |
File review | One month at most to flag an incomplete file; with no response within that period, it is deemed compliant (Decree, Art. 7) | Missing documents, a technical data sheet inconsistent with the plans |
Sanitary inspection visit | 45 days at most after a compliant file, date set by mutual agreement (Art. 8) | Site not ready on the proposed date, seasonal production |
Unfavourable visit | Findings notified within 15 working days (Art. 15); new visit at your request | Heavy corrections, works to redo |
Issue | No deadline stated in the texts we read | — |
An unfavourable visit puts the site back in the loop: correct, write to the service, wait for a new visit. It is the costliest scenario, because the site cannot legally place its products on the market until it is approved or authorised. For a buyer planning a first order from a new Moroccan plant, the issue date of the sanitary title is the milestone to build the schedule around.
How can you reduce cost and time without taking risks?
By deciding early and checking before ONSSA does.
- Settle the regime, approval or authorisation, before drawing the plans: a line of heat-treated preserves is not laid out like a fresh produce station.
- Have the flows drawn by someone who knows the process, before the structural work.
- Check whether an approved good practice guide covers your activity.
- Train the team during the works, not after the visit.
- Run a mock inspection on the grid of the official report, heading by heading.
- Build a single system for ONSSA and for your buyers’ certification.
HACCP and hygiene training included in your training plan may qualify for the special training contracts (contrats spéciaux de formation, CSF) of the OFPPT (Office de la formation professionnelle et de la promotion du travail, Morocco’s vocational training office), under the rules in force; ACG is CSF-eligible and promises no amount. The arrangement is described on our CSF and GIAC funding page.
That leaves the cost of having no approval. Article 25 of Law 28-07 provides for two to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of MAD 50,000 to 100,000, or one of these penalties, for placing on the market or exporting products from an establishment without a title, or whose title has been suspended or withdrawn.
The budget checklist
The documents and the visit are detailed in our ONSSA approval application file checklist, and the full framework in our ONSSA sanitary authorisation guide.