A new WHO Food Safety Community of Practice (COP) will help share knowledge and improve practice on food safety issues. The peer-to-peer online knowledge forum will serve professionals globally who want to improve food safety throughout the food value chain, who seek to deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area and who wish to exchange information and discuss ideas by interacting on an ongoing basis. The COP aims to expand learning potential, share diverse experiences and knowledge, encourage an understanding of [...]

In an introductory message to Codex Members and Observers, the new Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, together with incoming Vice-Chairpersons Allan Azegele, Raj Rajasekar and Diego Varela, has promised the new team of officials will be impartial and deliver “an inclusive, transparent and resilient Codex respected throughout the world for its commitment to consensus-driven and science-based food standards”. The message also underlines the importance of the Codex Strategic Plan and the new team’s commitment to ensuring the Codex [...]

It is true to say Codex never stops and although all committee sessions have finished for 2021, a training course on international standard setting and the Codex Alimentarius, part of a Codex Trust Fund (CTF) group project involving India, Bhutan and Nepal took place from 21 to 23 December 20221 in Dhulikhel, Nepal with participants from Bhutan joining virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions. The three-day meeting included a simulation exercise where participants gained insight into the management and process of a [...]

The Codex Trust Fund (CTF) supports countries to build strong, solid and sustainable national capacity to engage in Codex work. The Codex Trust Fund Advisory Group annual meeting took place online on 16 December 2021, hosted for the first time by the newly-elected Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, United Kingdom. The Advisory Group is part of the Codex governance mechanism and brings together FAO/WHO, donor countries other key stakeholders including the Codex Regional Coordinators. It serves as a forum [...]

The extended 44th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC44) came to a close on 14 December 2021 with the adoption of the outstanding agenda items in the final report. The Commission operates with simultaneous interpretation in six languages to guarantee an equitable forum for all delegations and work was interrupted on 18 November when the period of interpretation scheduled could no longer be extended. The Codex Secretariat subsequently arranged for delegations to provide written comments on the report and [...]

The agreement reached at the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses on a new guideline on Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) means there will now be an official document that can serve as a reference for national governments to use in their policies for nutritional treatment of childhood wasting, says Alison Fleet of UNICEF’s supply division. This guideline is expected to be used as a tool for regulation of RUTF products that are given to vulnerable populations, and [...]

The Codex El Salvador Contact Point, represented by the Salvadoran Organization for Technical Regulation OSARTEC, in a follow-up to the subscription of the Strategic Plan of the National Codex Program 2022-2024 carried out in September 2021, is developing the “Workshop for the Preparation of the Annual Plan of the National Codex 2022 Programme”. The objective of the workshop is the discussion and contributions to the Proposal of the Annual Plan of the National Codex Program 2022 with the government, private, academic [...]

"He always listens. He is open to reason and debate. He is open to thinking differently if the facts change". These the words of Chairperson-elect Steve Wearne on his predecessor Guilherme Da Costa in an interview held as CAC44 came to a close in November 2021. With a collective emphasis on listening and an awareness of the need to draw on the different views held within the Codex membership the "two chairs" underline the importance of collaboration and teamwork as Codex [...]

The decision to concentrate on a reduced agenda has paid off as the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses concludes its discussions on a guideline for ready-to-use therapeutic foods and closes in on finalizing the revised standard for follow up formula. Verna Carolissen, Codex Secretariat said on the completion of the text on ready-to-use therapeutic foods, that the principles under which Codex operates in developing a guideline of this nature are to “set the scene, and that [...]

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) hosted the global launch of the FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool, to introduce the tool and promote the benefits of assessing a national food control system. The event was designed for senior officials and technical officers from competent authorities involved in the operation of the national food control system, but was open to anybody with an interest to find out more about the [...]