In antiquity, the prohibition of eating or not a given product was appreciated empirically. If someone fell ill after eating a food, wisdom recommended that the food in question be avoided later. This practice was applied to decide of what is consumable from what was not to be until the end of the Middle Ages. Based on the work of Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus, the Italian engineer-astronomer Galileo Galilei initiated the basics of predictive science of which the biology later on benefited from by enacting laws. It is indeed Louis Pasteur who had the merit of linking the deterioration of food to the action of microbes and, consequently, the preservation of the quality of food in the absence of these microorganisms. The observations of the great French scientist were the first premises of the recommendations summarized today in the form of Good Hygiene Practices (GHP). But, knowing that GHPs do not necessarily guarantee the destruction of pathogenic bacteria, the analysis of food in the laboratory has been made necessary to ensure more of the adequacy of products in consideration for consumption by humans. This has been defined as “sampling control“. In summary, samples taken from a manufactured batch were analyzed and the result, good or bad, was applied to the entire lot. But the statistics (which we do not discuss in this article), and the follow-up in the field, will show the inadequacy of this approach as a means of confirming the safety of the foods to be consumed. And it is by seeking to better guarantee this wholesomeness, in the case of food planned for consumption by their astronauts, that Americans, in the fifties of the last century, initiated the studies that had concluded, a few decades later, in defining the new universal control system (based on risk control) known to all by now. This is of course the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) System. Some talk about HACCP standards. International official bodies, first and foremost the Codex Alimentarius, but also the WHO, FAO, WTO, IFTO (International Federation of Tour Operators), they all recognize the HACCP System as the reference instrument to ensure the safety of commercial food. For example, in Morocco, the application of HACCP approach is prescribed in Law 28-07 on Sanitary Food Safety and the texts of its application. In practice, unfortunately, the HACCP standards are far from being implemented (correctly) at home for many considerations of which we discuss some below.
First, when it comes to how Americans do their work, it must be recognized that whenever our partners across the Atlantic have had to solve a concerning problem, both in civilian and military terms, they based the search for solutions on the specificities of their country. This applies to studies of defining the HACCP System. In this regard, US agribusiness operators, and also foreign exporters to US market they do have to comply with, have the regulatory obligation to hire qualified personnel (able to read the law in force correctly and pinpoint food hazards) before producing and / or offering a food product on the US market (or serving it to the customer), otherwise they may incur serious consequences, financial and / or penal. In this sense, the American law values the obligation of result, that is to say the conformity of the product placed on the market (served to the customer) for human (or animal) consumption. On the other hand, the law allows the operator the free choice of proven methods (technology) to manufacture (prepare) the product in question. At the same time, targeted operators know that the FDA severely punishes slackness in food processing Units. In this context, HACCP* has become a cardinal reference for American professionals and, more generally, all those who food trade in this market. Indeed, the HACCP system requires that the necessary steps be taken to eliminate, or reduce to acceptable levels, the hazards that are reasonably likely to affect the product and pose a risk to the health of the potential consumer. The method to achieve this must be based on science, but the choice lies with the operator himself. Observations show that for countries with regulatory requirements equivalent to those of the FDA, Canada and Australia among others, the HACCP system has, to some extent, been adopted with due diligence. In total, HACCP is the regulatory tool of choice for managing the health risk of food for all countries that trade with the United States and they are the most numerous on the planet.
As concerning our case, as Moroccans (Africans), our trade with the US, notwithstanding the free trade agreement between our two countries, is negligible compared to EU / US trade and even compared to our export / import with the EU. As a result, our food operators, for the most part, are educated in the principles of HACCP by European consultants, mostly French. These consulting firms – which are supposed to have, each, acquired HACCP expertise in the work with the Private, which they then value with other operators in the form of Audits / Certifications by means of finance – do a great pedagogical work. We must also salute them because they take into account our working conditions. They know, for example, that only a minority of Moroccan operators in the industrial and hotel sectors are actually assisted by qualified personnel according to the regulations. But this does not preclude the desire of every operator, regardless of their status in relation to the law, to dream of a “simple and easy” upgrade to bring every one into compliance with the law currently in force with application of HACCP principles. This is indeed a far from easy problem for the consulting firms. And, in short, the consultants compete with ingenuity to reconcile the irreconcilable. In seeking, some have got back an old approach, called “5M” (Ishikawa Diagram). This generic approach, which seeks to identify the cause (s) of a problem in order to find a solution to it, does include mnemonic elements that can help to facilitate memorization of learning and, supposedly, contribute to the assimilation of the HACCP’s principles.
However, it is difficult to conclude whether approaches such as “5Ms” and similar initiatives can produce beneficial results for the proper implementation of HACCP principles. Indeed, the system is a complete (stand-alone) tool specifically designed for the rational management of the risks inherent in the manufacture (preparation) of food products (meals). In this respect, during the audit prior to a HACCP certification, the auditor / certifier endeavors to review with the operator the flow of raw materials from their purchase / receipt and storage to the preparation of Finished Products and their commercial distribution (serve the meal to the customer). The goal is to identify potential hazards at a given step to stop them before they migrate to the next stage. This approach is designed to correlate also with walking forward. It is therefore not certain that the introduction of generic modules borrowed elsewhere, the “5Ms”, the “5 keys” and the like, can bring added value to the potential of the HACCP system in diagnosing a “Process” for improving or correcting it. On the other hand, by focusing attention on these modules in question, which may be perfectly useful academically, there is the risk of diverting the operator’s attention from the HACCP substance (search for critical points) to the form side of the service not essential to the relevant management of the food risk.
Finally, the data available on the subject show that our African continent is lagging behind in the widespread application of HACCP as a tool for assessing the safety of our agricultural and agri-food resources. It seems that the time has finally come to provide our share of effort to generalize the effective adoption of HACCP for a better harmonization of standards for the benefit of our trade in the globalized market.
* : Recently, this system was renamed HARPC (Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls) in the FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act), and the use of HARPC, included in the new US law, was extended to fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) and others
