Morocco Merchants Turn Off Fridges: Food Safety Crisis

In the middle of summer, fresh products cannot withstand cold chain breaks. Dairy products, beverages, juices, chocolate or certain heat-sensitive products can lose their food safety conditions even if their expiration date is still far away.

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This is what concerns the Moroccan Consumer Protection Observatory (OMPC), which alerts about the behavior of certain merchants who turn off their refrigeration equipment to limit their electricity consumption. Its president, Hassan Ait Ali, believes that this practice represents a real danger for consumers.

With rising temperatures, bacteria and germs develop more rapidly, which can lead to food poisoning, particularly among children, the elderly, pregnant women and vulnerable people. The Observatory calls on merchants to strictly respect food product storage rules and asks competent services to strengthen controls during summer.

On the professionals’ side, the phenomenon is not entirely denied. The national general secretary of the Moroccan Union of Merchants and Professionals, cited by Hespress, acknowledges that some merchants turn off their fridges, even though others keep them running all day. According to him, professional organizations raise merchants’ awareness about the importance of keeping cold equipment on permanently.

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But the official puts forward another explanation: margins would be very thin on most products requiring refrigerated storage, often around 10%. Some merchants would therefore seek to preserve their profit, or simply avoid selling at a loss, by reducing the electricity bill related to fridges.