Seconded officers provide a valuable contribution to the work of the Secretariat. There are currently five food standards officers in the Codex Secretariat. That is not many to run over 20 technical and regional committees in any given year. The two seconded officers currently sponsored by the governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea therefore provide welcome additional technical capacity together with specific knowledge of Codex geographical regions and national systems and processes. Myoengsin Choi from the Republic of Korea has [...]

Anyone can now follow Codex Alimentarius meetings simply by clicking on the RSS icon. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and is a technology used to monitor rapidly changing information on the web in an organized and user friendly way.  It is identified by the little orange and white RSS icon that is found all over the world on Web sites, in particular on news sites and blogs.  By posting a "feed" on their page, web site owners allow RSS readers to search [...]

May 23rd 2017 Paris. World Organisation for Animal Health  Speech: Tom Heilandt  The actual speech as it was delivered may deviate from the speech texts made available on this website. Chers déléguées, délégués - Mesdames et Messieurs Bonjour !  Je voudrais premièrement remercier l'OIE et sa directrice générale – Dr Monique Éloit pour cette invitation et la possibilité de m'adresser à vous ici aujourd'hui. Le thème de la discussion qui suivra ces interventions individuelles est très pertinent. Toute normalisation est inutile si [...]

The regional meetings provide an incredibly important opportunity for dynamic discussion on major and emerging food safety and quality issues facing the region. There are six Codex regions each represented by a joint FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee (RCC).They meet every two years. Each committee is responsible for defining the problems and needs of the region concerning food standards and food control. By working collectively at the regional level countries are able to highlight regulatory issues and problems arising from food control [...]

On Monday 8th May the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling holds its 38th session in Budapest Hungary. Dr Marót Hibbey will chair the meeting for the first time and ahead of the meeting he took part in a Question and Answer session. Dr Marót Hibbey Q1 This meeting will be your first as Chair, can you tell us a little about your professional and personal background? I graduated as a vet in the Szent István University of Veterinary Sciences in Budapest, and [...]

Safe food to consumers should not be compromised regardless of the economic standing of the country. Greg Read is First Assistant Secretary in the Exports Division of the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and also chair of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS).  Q: How does CCFICS work to ensure fair trading practices and facilitate international trade in foodstuffs, protecting at the same time the health of consumers? Read: CCFICs has developed a large [...]

The Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Mrs Awilo Ochieng Pernet joined the General Director of the Kazakhstan National Center of Expertise (KZ-NCE) Mr Kanat Balykbayev to run the Almaty Marathon in Kazakhstan on 23.4.2017. Almaty Marathon in Kazakhstan The “Codex Runners” were supported by an outstanding “Codex Almaty Marathon Team” led by the Director of the Almaty Branch of the KZ-NCE Mr Sanat Saptaev and his Deputy-Director Mr Jumash Sandykbayev. The project to have a “Codex Team” at the 42 Km [...]

Feed Safety Multi-stakeholder Partnership Survey on guidance material (tools, methods, manuals, etc.) on how to conduct risk assessment for feed What is the objective of the survey? The FAO facilitated Feed Safety Multi-stakeholder Partnership is conducting this survey to take stock and collect currently available material (e.g. tools, methods, manuals) on how to conduct risk assessment for feed. This is done, as part of preparing practical guidance and training materials (manual and other tools) to support the implementation of the Codex Alimentarius [...]

Contaminants are substances that have not been intentionally added to food. They can occur naturally and enter the food while a crop is growing. They can form during manufacturing, handling, storage, processing or distribution. Or they can enter the food from the environment, through our water, the air or soil. The Contaminants Committee establishes or endorses permitted maximum levels or guidelines levels for contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food and feed. Nearly 50 countries are expected at this 11th session which [...]

This committee establishes or endorses permitted maximum levels for individual food additives. A food additive in Codex is defined as "any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical ingredient of the food". Adding food and colour ingredients Additives can be added during the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of a food for technological purposes.  This could be for example to colour, to sweeten or to help preserve the food. In the [...]