From ONSSA Approval to GFSI Certification: A Roadmap for Morocco

What is the difference between an ONSSA approval and an ONSSA authorisation?

A sanitary approval (agrément sanitaire) applies to the more sensitive activities listed in the annex of Decree 2-10-473; a sanitary authorisation (autorisation sanitaire) applies to all other food businesses. Either way, the licence must be in place before the plant starts operating.

The rule comes from Article 5 of Law No. 28-07 on the sanitary safety of food products, enacted on 11 February 2010: food establishments must be authorised or approved on sanitary grounds before they are put into operation. Decree No. 2-10-473 of 6 September 2011 draws the line in Article 4: approval for the categories in its annex, authorisation for the rest.

ONSSA's own procedure code puts the difference simply. An approval certifies that the plant meets the hygiene conditions and runs a self-monitoring system. An authorisation certifies that it applies a validated good sanitary practice guide. In practice, an approved plant must operate self-monitoring that complies with Moroccan standard NM 08.0.002 (HACCP management system) or an equivalent system (Decree 2-10-473, Article 34).

Two special cases matter to investors. For maritime fishery and aquaculture establishments, the decree gives the licensing role to the authority in charge of maritime fisheries, with ONSSA giving its opinion during the site visit (Articles 5 and 9). For a fish cannery, have the provincial ONSSA office confirm the route before filing. Retail and catering outlets are licensed by the municipal hygiene authority instead. Businesses that sell their entire output directly to final consumers are exempt, but stay responsible for product safety (Law 28-07, Article 5).

What goes into the file, and how long does ONSSA take?

The application goes to the ONSSA office of the province where the plant is located, with a two-part file, and ONSSA issues a receipt on the spot. The decree then sets maximum deadlines, not guaranteed ones.

ONSSA's official page provides the application form and two file templates, one for approval and one for authorisation. They are identical on the administrative side and almost identical on the technical side; the difference lies in the manual.

Administrative part (ONSSA templates):

• copy of the applicant's ID and, for a company, proof of the signatory's powers;
• copies of the articles of association and the trade register certificate;
• copy of the building permit for the premises;
• where relevant, proof of the premises' address.

Technical part:

• a location plan at 1:1,000 and a general layout at 1:100 to 1:300, showing work and storage areas, drinking water supply and wastewater drainage, staff facilities and toilets, product flow, staff movement and waste routes;
• a technical sheet: activity, site utilities, surface areas, hygiene description of rooms and equipment, work organisation and headcount, products and trade names, raw materials and their origin, packaging, detailed process flow diagrams, production and storage capacities, transport;
• for an approval, a manual describing the self-monitoring programme (Articles 32, 33 and 41 of the decree); for an authorisation, a procedures manual based on a good sanitary practice guide.

One requirement regularly blocks projects: the building permit is part of the administrative file. A plant in unregularised premises cannot file an admissible application. Foreign investors buying or leasing an existing building should check this before signing.

ONSSA's procedure code (CP 05/DCPV/14) and Order No. 244-13 of 16 January 2013 set out the details. Neither Order No. 244-13, nor Decree 2-10-473, nor the procedure code sets a validity period for approvals or authorisations. The renewable five-year term set by Order No. 2010-25 of 5 August 2025 (Official Bulletin No. 7471, 5 January 2026) applies to the approval of the bodies to which ONSSA delegates regular sanitary inspections, not to establishments.

What does the ONSSA inspector check during the visit?

The visit checks that the location, design, layout, equipment and intended operation of the plant meet Title III of Decree 2-10-473. ONSSA judges the plant as it will actually run, not just the paperwork.

Five areas draw most of the attention:

1. Premises and forward flow. Clean and dirty areas separated, staff, product and waste routes that never cross, washable surfaces, pest proofing.
2. Water. Water in contact with food must be potable; the decree also covers ice, steam and the cooling water used for hermetically sealed containers after heat treatment.
3. Good hygiene practice. Cleaning and disinfection, staff hygiene and training, temperature control, waste management.
4. Self-monitoring. For an approved plant, a HACCP-based programme compliant with NM 08.0.002 (decree, Articles 34 and 41). Records must be kept for at least five years (Law 28-07, Article 9).
5. Traceability and withdrawal. Every operator must be able to identify its suppliers and customers (Law 28-07, Article 12) and must inform the authorities without delay if it has reason to believe a product is unsafe (Article 10).

After the licence is issued, the plant stays under control: routine sanitary visits (decree, Article 16), possible suspension with a correction period of up to six months, immediate withdrawal where there is a danger to health (Articles 17 and 18). Since Order No. 2010-25 of 5 August 2025, published in the Official Bulletin on 15 January 2026, ONSSA may delegate routine visits to public bodies or private legal entities approved under a set of specifications.

A HACCP plan only counts if it describes the real plant. Our HACCP plan guide, with a worked cannery example, shows the level of detail inspectors and auditors expect.

After ONSSA: ISO 22000, then a GFSI certificate?

The ONSSA licence gives the right to produce; it does not answer the buyer's question, "are you certified to a GFSI-recognised standard?". What comes next depends on who you sell to.

The GFSI recognises 12 certification programme owners, including BRCGS, IFS, FSSC 22000, GLOBALG.A.P. and SQF. ISO 22000:2018 on its own is not GFSI-recognised; FSSC 22000, built on ISO 22000 with sector prerequisite programmes and additional requirements, is. Current versions: FSSC 22000 Version 7 (published May 2026), BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9, IFS Food Version 8.

To choose, see our comparison of BRCGS, IFS and FSSC 22000 by export market and ISO 22000 vs FSSC 22000 v7.

Moving from ONSSA to GFSI mainly adds four things the regulation does not require in that form: a written, measurable management commitment, an assessed food safety culture, food defence and food fraud programmes, and a more demanding audit regime, sometimes unannounced. The foundations — premises, water, HACCP, traceability — are the ones ONSSA has already checked. That is why it pays to design them to GFSI level from the start.

What does a typical 18-month roadmap look like?

The timeline below is an indicative ACG roadmap for a new export-oriented plant; it is not a guaranteed schedule. Only the administrative deadlines come from Decree 2-10-473, and they are maximums.

Three factors most often stretch this timeline: a missing building permit, room layouts that must be reworked after the visit, and seasonality that leaves too few production weeks to build evidence before the certification audit. A GFSI mock audit at the end checks that the evidence really covers live production. For seafood plants, the export layer is detailed in our guide to fish cannery export certifications.

How do you prepare the file without losing time?

Check every document against the official template before filing: an incomplete file restarts the one-month review. This list follows the ONSSA templates and the points the visit covers.

• Classify the activity: approval (annex of Decree 2-10-473) or authorisation, and confirm with the provincial ONSSA office.
  
• Gather the administrative part: ID, powers, articles of association, trade register, building permit, proof of address.
  
• Have the location plan (1:1,000) and general layout (1:100 to 1:300) drawn with product, staff, water and waste routes.
  
• Complete the technical sheet: products, raw materials and origin, packaging, flow diagrams, capacities.
  
• Attach the HACCP self-monitoring manual (approval) or the good-practice procedures manual (authorisation).
  
• Check water potability and the cleaning plan before the visit.
  
• Prepare upstream and downstream traceability and the procedure for informing authorities and withdrawing products.
  
• Plan to print the approval or authorisation number on packaging and documents as soon as it is issued.
  
• Once licensed, schedule the gap analysis against the GFSI standard your buyers require.