Originally, the national legislation on food safety was bicephalous. Anti-fraud units took care of the internal market and EACCE (Autonomous Establishment of Control and Coordination of Exports) made sure of the quality of food products exported to Europe, essentially to France which qualify to the unworthiness for imposing in Morocco in the past the creation of that organism. In sum, Moroccans can eat what was offered them but the French had the privilege to choose. In this context, the enactment of the 28-07 law on food safety was a big progress by imposing the same rules to be respected by operators regardless of the destination of the produced commodities for local consumption or for export. Accordingly, there is no valid reason for maintaining the EACCE. But if he is still there, it is highly likely, in my opinion, whether as a result of the will of foreign contractors, France in particular, which must insist that EACCE remains its key contact for exported products. This situation harms our efforts to upgrade the national agro-industrial sector and sabotages the brand image that we want to brandish as a model to serve the interests of other African countries. At the same time, as a sneaky approach, this way of doing slows dangerously efforts of Morocco for his quest to play a positive role on African continent so to help African countries in focusing on the upgrading of quality of food products as an essential factor for getting out of underdevelopment.
Before the adoption of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points), food quality was “measured” by controlling samples of finished products. Once food articles are produced samples are taken and checked for physicochemical and microbiological characteristics (including tests for stability of products) and if regulatory controls were satisfactory, the products are released in commercial circuits. But experience worldwide has shown, among other things, that the overwhelming majority of foods are effectively “released” after the control of end products. For example, the operators remake several times controls and they keep in their archives only analyzes that have yielded the desired results to justify the release of their products commercially. For this reason, the new Moroccan regulation, like other laws throughout the world, adopted HACCP as a new standard to measure the quality of food products. Clearly, the 28-07 law requires operators the introduction of an HACCP approach in their preparation units and / or food processing. This principle, applied to industrial canning, implies that those operators must, among other things, define with an expert a scheduled process for their products. They also must keep in their archives during the commercial life of the product sold, the entire manufacturing file of the food in question to show to the competent authorities in case of need. This requirement is of the same level as that imposed to drug manufacturers by the Ministry of Health. Of course, among the elements typically contained in the production folder there are settings that affect the different calibrations and cleaning operations and maintenance of autoclaves for good working.
On another level, there are now no regulatory obligations agribusiness industrialists to recruit graduate engineers in their enterprises as is the case in other countries of the world to which we compare ourselves. By comparison, a pharmaceutical unit cannot be allowed without the recruitment of pharmacists. As a result, operators can sometimes be careless in terms of maintenance, for example. In this regard, the Moroccan industrials working with autoclaves type «Barriquand”, a high-pressure retort which trickles hot water through openings fitted in the equipment on the cans to sterilize, which constitute the majority here in Morocco, who neglect maintenance operations (and there are many) may see some water runoff holes that become clogged with fat that accumulates by repeated work on fish or olives or other products that generate greasy substances. The tins which are then below the clogged holes do not receive sufficient heat to sterilize the product which leads to later swelling boxes by microbial growth. The potential European buyer of such goods informs authorities of his remarks who pass the comments on to the EACCE. We all understood now that something is wrong at the plant that must be corrected and that there are two ways to proceed. The first, rational and professional, is to review, as advocated by the HACCP, all elements of the manufacturing process to pinpoint the faulty component and fix it. The second approach, invented by some Moroccan inspectors, is to order the manufacturer to keep the finished product to its level for a few weeks’ time to see if improperly sterilized cans swell. He must put aside defective cans for destruction and submit to the EACCE only the cans that were not inflated. In this unhealthy gaming, the operator loses up to a month waiting to sell his goods or, the other way, will never know where the problem is. Outsourcers have found material to maintain their suspicion on the “Made in Morocco”. The prize goes to officials of the EACCE who have once again found a way to make cheesy, poorly, work by operators making them at the same time less competitive.
