by Mohamed Aden Hersi, Codex Contact Point (CCP) for Somalia and Hakim Mufumbiro, Regional Coordinator, CCAFRICA Wednesday 23 August 2023 marked a significant milestone for Somalia when the country’s 1st National Codex Committee (NCC) meeting was held, following two days of intensive capacity building sessions involving national stakeholders. The sessions, held on 21 and 22 August in Mogadishu, Somalia, provided training on Codex work management and were attended by 27 different state and non-state stakeholders who are members of the NCC. Somalia [...]

Anne Beutling and Vanessa Beier, Germany, Regional Coordinator for CCEURO   As part of the Codex Trust Fund (CTF) support provided to Turkmenistan, Members of the National Codex Committee of Turkmenistan took part in a three-day study trip to Germany, which currently acts as the Regional Coordinator for Europe. The all-female delegation, representing the core members of the Turkmen National Codex Committee, consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, the Centre of Public Health and Nutrition, the Ministry [...]

On 7–8 September 2023, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in the framework of the FAO/WHO Codex Trust Fund (CTF) project on strengthening national capacity for sustainable activities Codex Alimentarius, a workshop was held for national food experts and food business operators on Codex Alimentarius and the formulation of national positions in Uzbekistan. Representatives of bodies involved in food safety - the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health, the Committee for Veterinary Medicine [...]

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global threat of increasing concern to human and animal health. It also has implications for both food safety and food security and the economic well-being of millions of farming households. Food plays an important role in the development and spread of AMR.  Among the ongoing initiatives to tackle this issue, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) of the Republic of Korea is hosting the 3rd Global Conference on Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance on 12 and 13 September 2023. The conference will be also streamed [...]

To consolidate its national Codex structures and to increase its participation in international food standards drafting at the level of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Mauritius has been filing for assistance from the Codex Trust Fund (CTF) since 2012. In 2020, Mauritius was successful in its application and was the sole country in the African region to benefit from CTF funding. Mauritius’ CTF project will run activities geared towards building a strong and sustainable national Codex structure, with the ultimate aim [...]

The eleventh meeting of the Codex Coordinating Committee for the Near East (CCNE) will take place 18–22 September at FAO headquarters in Rome. We spoke to Khalid S Al Zhrani, from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), who will chair CCNE11 on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the current Regional Coordinator for the Near East, to find out more about him and his expectations for the meeting. Q. Khalid, thanks for your time. For those who don’t know you, could [...]

On 15 and 16 August, delegates from Bhutan, India and Nepal (BIN) met in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu for the ‘Terminal Meeting’ of the first ever Codex Trust Fund (CTF) group project. Attendees at the meeting lauded the project as a great success and were clear that rather than marking the end of the BIN collaboration, this was a pivotal moment where the three countries could look forward to consolidating what they have learned and building on what they have [...]

Recently two training sessions have taken place in Mali (a training session on Codex for the national media on 3 August 2023 and a training session on Codex for the country’s Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council on 10 August 2023) as part of the 3-year Codex Trust Fund (CTF) project being implemented in the country. A key component of the project involves awareness-raising activities for members of the country’s Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council and for journalists. The training [...]

In a new Codex podcast, David Massey speaks with all six Codex Regional Coordinators about the importance of their role in ensuring representation of the Codex membership at a decision-making level. The podcast was recorded at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, CCEXEC, held in Geneva 10-14 July, where initial plans were discussed for establishing the framework of the new Codex Strategic Plan (2026-2031). Massey asks his guests what they consider to be the value of [...]

World Food Safety Day messages reached people across at least 139 countries this year. Newspapers, online news sites, television programmes, radio stations and magazines all played a part in spreading the word. On 7 March, the World Food Safety Day campaign was launched and the year’s theme, “Food standards save lives”, was announced. The Food Safety Africa magazine dedicated a double page spread to World Food Safety Day in its March issue and the Food Safety Magazine reported on the year’s [...]