Watermelon Scare: Morocco’s Food Safety Watchdog Defends Strict Controls Amid Poisoning Fears

The National Office of Sanitary Safety of Food Products (ONSSA) is reassuring. In a press release, ONSSA states that the production and marketing of red watermelon are subject to a strict multi-level control system. The red watermelon production process goes through a series of monitoring operations, from the prior authorization to use pesticides, through periodic laboratory analyses, to the monitoring of the product on local and international markets after its commercialization, it specified.

According to the Office, it is only after a complete scientific evaluation taking into account environmental, chemical and biological data that the pesticides used are approved. This evaluation aims to protect consumer health and ensure the quality of agricultural products. Morocco adopts an advanced national system for controlling agricultural products, particularly those known to be sensitive, by precisely setting the authorized doses, ONSSA stressed. It says it is constantly monitoring scientific developments in this field.

Thus, since 2018, 63 active substances have been withdrawn from the national market due to non-compliance with current safety standards. This has led to the removal of 411 commercial products that depended on them. The Office also stated that its services regularly carry out control and analysis operations to ensure the availability of high-quality agricultural products on the markets, in accordance with health and safety standards. According to it, there is no need to worry about the consumption of red watermelon and other products subject to control.