Vinesh Kumar is the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture in Fiji and will chair the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for North America and the South West Pacific (CCNASWP) that will take place in Nadi from 31 January to 3 February 2023. Hosting the meeting puts Fiji and the region on the global map and gives us a better platform to be recognized in Codex. We have been involved in the development of the kava standard and other national areas of interest include pesticide [...]

The 15th Berlin Agricultural Ministers’ Conference took place on 21 January 2023, with the theme “Agrifood systems transformation: a worldwide response to multiple crises". Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary, spoke of the importance of using all international fora to improve cooperation regarding global food systems. “Applying Codex standards helps remove trade barriers,” he said, explaining how a global structure like Codex can also drive and enhance policy coherence. A final communiqué from the meeting, agreed by approximately 70 countries present, underlined the [...]

A Codex expert panel discussion “Is the Codex system fit for the future?” took place on Friday 20 January 2023 at the annual Global Forum for Food and Agriculture organized, in Berlin, Germany, by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General FAO, described Codex as “a public good to serve countries in defending their standards, in protecting consumers and ensuring also fair trade.” Speaking also of the need to respond to interconnected challenges in agriculture, [...]

Jose Emilio Esteban, Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), has been confirmed as the new United States of America Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety. In a statement following the swearing in of Dr Esteban, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: “I am confident that Dr. Esteban’s leadership and experience is the right combination to advance our commitment to maintaining public health and reducing foodborne illness.” Emilio Esteban has chaired the Food Hygiene Committee since its fortieth session [...]

The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) has agreed to send guidelines on the control of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and on the safe use and reuse of water in food production to the next Codex Alimentarius Commission for final adoption. Both proposed Codex texts are extensive documents and although the general sections and several commodity specific annexes are now finalized, the committee will continue to negotiate on specific areas of intervention for other foods. Over 120 delegates participated in [...]

Virtual meetings have given us the possibility to hop, skip and jump from one continent and one subject to another just with the right link and the copy and paste of a passcode. So it must have come as a shock to some delegates at the current session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) when they had to pack their bags in Rome on Friday as the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) ended and be 10 000 km away, bright [...]

On 24 November 2022, the Institutional Strategic Plan was signed by the members of the National Codex Committee (CNCA) of Bolivia. The plan aims to promote the use of Codex standards to facilitate trade and protect consumer health. It was developed by representatives from the public, private, academic and consumer sectors and was an additional outcome of a FAO/WHO Codex Trust Fund Project. Read the full story in Spanish

The National Codex Alimentarius Committee of Bolivia, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) held a training on procedures for establishing a Codex country position and the interrelationship between the agreements on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade. The workshop was aimed at staff of public and private institutions, as well as members of the national committee and took place in La Paz on 21 and 22 November 2022. Read the full story in Spanish [...]

The 22nd session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean is taking place online from 24 to 28 October, 2022, hosted in Quito, Ecuador. Bernardo Manzano, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Ecuador welcomed more than 120 delegates joining from the 33 countries in the region. The Minister underscored the mission of the Codex Alimentarius to guarantee safe, quality food for all people everywhere, preserving their health and contributing to equity in international food trade. He also [...]

At the FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (CCLAC), which gets underway from Quito, Ecuador on Monday 24 October 2022, the Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, United Kingdom, will describe how the Codex strategic plan continues to inform Codex responses to the new opportunities and challenges that are posed by an ever-changing operating environment.  With the first strategic goal addressing current, emerging and critical issues as identified by Codex Members, each of the six [...]