International organizations like WHO (World Health Organization), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), Codex Alimentarius and other recommend to professionals to comply with local regulations of their country first. In the case of Morocco, that implies that the operators of the food chain are required to conduct their activities in accordance with the 28-07 Act. The National Agency for Sanitary Safety of Food (ONSSA), an organization that oversees the food chain, is responsible for ensuring the fulfillment of this law and the provisions adopted for its implementation. However, the reality on the ground shows that we are still far short of the required improvements for operations in the food chain. We must remember that ONSSA, like other state agencies, has within competent people who have heart to do their homework and other may be less prone to this service. But is this the only reason for the lack of interest of professionals to carry out their upgrade? It is very likely that the sources of resistance are multiple and interconnected. They have in common the questioning by the law of some deeply rooted privileges which go back to the French colonial era. In this article, we examine one of the factors of resistance that comes, in our view, from the “interference” of some service providers related to European groups who devote their energies to make “inaudible” any effort by the Moroccan monitoring authority to control by itself improving operations in the domestic food industry.
ISO standards used in everything
No one disputes the value of ISO standards achieved by consensus to harmonize the views of academics from different countries on a technical-scientific element or another. Similarly, the concept of accreditation is now overused and is losing more and more the high-mindedness that was giving him consistency. But the mentioned standards are issued by private corporations upon their responsibilities and cannot be a substitute for the law. Some argue that because an operator has implemented a private standard, he should be exempt from conforming to national regulations because, they say, ISO 22000 is a more powerful standard than the 28-07 Act. They fail to mention that the agencies that issue the documents referred to are companies whose business is first of all driven by profits. Moreover, these people have a habit of signing the papers from their offices based in Europe. This approach faces head-on the rule that a private company that issues a document can be brought to account, if necessary, before a court of Justice if it appears that it has breached its own duty by providing, for example a certificate of convenience. That however is complicated when the person that signed the fraudulent document is in a foreign country, a European State for example. These people want to be paid in foreign currency, want recognition of their signature within a sovereign country that is foreign to them and, best of all, do not want to be accountable to anyone. It’s called wanting your cake and eat it too. This actually is the type of diktat no self-respecting country would tolerate on its territory.
The expertise would not be worthy of Moroccans
The vast majority of Moroccan operators say, without anyone knowing the exact source of this “interference”, their products would be rejected for export to Europe if they do not refer to French standards. Clearly, this means that operators are virtually forced to indicate compliance of their products with French standards in order to export them to France first and only then to other European markets. Although the actual Act of Moroccan food safety has nothing to envy to the regulations of other countries, including European ones, it is difficult to exclude the existence of such hidden pressures. The ONSSA therefore has a duty to encourage operators to think differently and realize that if our trade balance is in chronic deficit, this precisely is because we mistakenly believe that only French middlemen allow us access to European markets. Under these conditions, hang on to this doctrine would exacerbate the problem, not solve it.
Way out of this trap
The expertises in question are essentially the work of analysis and advice that are the prerogative of control laboratories of food. Now, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. A graduate student, who has succeeded brilliantly his studies and received his PhD or equivalent, must be able to practice what his diploma allows him to do. This also applies to the opening of food analysis laboratories. The ONSSA remains the body that is responsible for monitoring the work of these laboratories and stop it, if necessary, in the situation of someone who would prove unskilled. Regarding the monitoring of such services, ONSSA may submit appropriate samples to laboratories for analysis on a formal protocol. If the results of the analysis for a given one differ significantly from the expected average, it may be warned or, if it fails repeatedly, the license may be withdrawn until failures are settled. For those providers likely to hand over certificates of convenience, heavy financial sanctions should be brought against them. Directed with clarity, work of ONSSA will probably be appreciated by our international trading partners and do good to image of the body.
In conclusion, that the ONSSA has been appointed as supervisor of national food chain seems quite normal. This is different from the credibility that cannot be decreed, but rewards a serious and ongoing work in the field and allows thereafter respect of the body by the equivalent foreign partners.
