After the Second World War, the physico-chemical equipment was so powerful that it became possible, by mass spectrometry, to detect the presence of a given one molecule among million billion others. So instead of trying to push even further the performance of laboratory analysis, it seemed more appropriate to try to understand reason and / or significance of the presence of such molecules among others for the aim of prevention. In adopting such an approach to work, Americans developed a new “yardstick” for measuring the safety of operations in the food industry they called “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point” (HACCP). It was immediately found a French designation to the standard « Analyse des Dangers et Maîtrise des Points Critiques ». But the term was not a success and things would have ended there. HACCP would have continued its trajectory, guided from the United States, and win, beyond Europe, the compliance of African countries as is the case for their counterparts in Asia and South America. But we are talking of an Anglo-Saxon tool that would let the Europeans, especially those of them who rely on their agri-food sector to boost their trade balance, be seen as mere peddlers and that was certainly unacceptable to the Europe of agriculture.
HACCP VS ISO 22000
“Heavy armada” to denigrate the HACCP was then awakened in the “Europe of glamour” to overcome this “intruder” whose purpose, real or perceived, was to divert the agri-food trade of Africa from its “normal course” and deprive some European countries of their sovereign status on the continent. First, interference was orchestrated to propagate the idea that the HACCP system does not have the “characteristics” of a standard and, therefore, could not be amenable to implementation by professionals of the food industry. In parallel, a nasty and aggressive effort to discredit HACCP led to the launch of ISO 22000 standard with the blessing of the eponymous agency. This time, the ponderous have loudly claimed victory by hitting finally they held their European standard. In fact, they “refurbished HACCP” under a new administrative and literary packaging and demanded that from now on, trade with the European Union must refer exclusively to the ISO 22000. Illusionists behind this scam wanted to “kill three birds with one stone”: first, they seem to innovate, especially in front of us, Africans, taking us for simpletons. In fact, there is not a relevant point of the ISO 22000 which wasn’t already addressed in the HACCP standard. Second, they gave to themselves an ad hoc reason to tighten the screws on targeted African operators intimating different countries around to refer exclusively to ISO 22000 lest their products be banned access to the EU market as retaliation. We should not forget that many African food products use France as the country of entry into the market of the European Union. Third, they gave themselves an additional tool to extort a little more African countries by providing a myriad of private offices designated to tap deeper into the pockets of companies under the guise of assistance to implement ISO 22000 which actually became inevitable. Finally, the icing on the cake, the Americans, sidelined, could only see how their European colleagues, French and others, feasted on the back of their “offspring, HACCP” bound by a European sleight of hand that will remain in history without a penny for them.
Moroccan law to the test
For an ogre, who swallowed HACCP and made of it ISO 22000, the Moroccan “28-07” law of food safety takes the form of a bite. It should be emphasized that United States took four decades to imagine, develop and refine the HACCP system as an innovative tool to better manage food borne hazards. Understand after that it was “ingeniously” kidnapped to serve under ISO 22000 the interests of the European Union in Africa can actually shock. In Morocco, most operators in the food chain are totally confused. It is not surprising that the first question they ask a director of a Moroccan food testing laboratory relates to his “accreditation” or “certification”. The food processing professional does not even seem interested in whether the laboratory is duly authorized by Moroccan authorities. In addition, certification and / or accreditation are understood with the one or another of pro-European offices, sometimes led by former lazy people in their own countries of origin, which are there to make easy money on the backs of innocent Moroccan and African companies. If this is not a discrediting of Moroccan law, trampled at leisure as well as the credibility of the ONSSA (Morocco supervisory organism on food safety), it looks alike as two drops of water. In front of these professionals interference, what we do: nothing! We have ceded the land by forfeit. This is the conclusion one would draw when we realize how lax and soft ONSSA appears on these issues. The supervisory body should tap firmly on the table and make it clear that on Moroccan soil, it is the law passed by the parliament of this country which is in force and those who see things differently just have to go and apply it elsewhere and preferably in their home country. Domestic operators must also understand that they are required to apply Moroccan law full stop! Where appropriate, the 28-07 law provides what should be done in exceptional circumstances. With regard to foreign markets, it belongs to EACCE (Morocco supervisory organism on food safety for export) to request additional informations if necessary. On the other hand, people who hide behind so-called obedience to other standards instead of national regulations, or those who grow this behavior, must be called to order or inviting them to go and do their interference elsewhere. After all, the role of ONSSA is not limited, as propaganda fed from who knows where would have us believe in their passages here and there in the souks and / or convenience stores, to hunt small occasional offenders. This is an area quite essential to national industrial activity waiting on their efforts to raise the quality of our work above the average international standards. This requires, first and foremost, the application of what the legislator has defined as mission to the ONSSA, namely control and arbitration of operations within the food chain and operators who do the work. In no way their mandate includes handling own operations of certification and / or accreditation in favor of anyone and giving food for thought to those who persist in denying to Morocco sovereignty over its expertise. The state is one and indivisible and that apply to ONSSA under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries should be applied the same to organisms under the Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy. Finally, ONSSA officials must wake up and understand that their credibility is undermined daily by “soldiers of interference” whose purpose is to maintain the national food trade receivership on behalf of their principals. These people consider our regulations as worthless to them and only swear by their standards tailor-made to promote trade of products from some of our European neighbors. Worse, the application of these standards bar the way to products from the many other nations with which Morocco might be interested to trade.
In conclusion, interestingly to note some senior officials of the Moroccan administration are passionate about being decorated by the “Europe of glamour” authorities. However, it is useless to seek medals at the abroad to justify one’s own work for the Kingdom of Morocco. If the purpose of these awards is to put the interests of a third party before those of their own country, the game is not worth the effort.
