The 43rd session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling concluded Saturday 18 May with the adoption of the report and… a recipe for an Asian soup. The Committee had covered a lot of ground during the week, with the endorsement of methods of analysis for the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) and the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils (CCFO), with endorsement or proposed revocation of methods for olive oils and olive pomace oils, [...]

On 15 May, Masanori Kotani, President and Secretary General of Japan’s Food Safety Management Association (JFSM) delivered an online lecture to second-year students at Hokkaido Shizunai Agricultural High School on food safety and the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) “5 keys to safer food”, information on the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points food food safety system and on the World Food Safety Day theme for 2024 and slogan. Following the last year’s lecture, the session included quizzes, which helped make [...]

The FAO-implemented and Republic of Korea-funded Action to support implementation of Codex AMR Texts (ACT) project aims at “increased recognition and use of Codex standards”. In the Latin America and Caribbean region, one of the activities designed to help achieve this objective is a webinar series which has been devised to increase awareness on Codex standards and associated opportunities and challenges, and topics of interest for the Latin American and the Caribbean region. The sixth webinar in the series  took place [...]

The second Asia-Pacific Food Regulatory Authority Summit (APFRAS), convened by the Government of the Republic of Korea, is taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea this week. Several Asia-Pacific countries are participating in the meeting, including Australia, China, New Zealand and the International Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), representing Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. Corinna Hawkes, Director of the FAO Division of Agrifood Systems and Food Safety and Codex Secretary ad interim is attending as a [...]

The 43rd session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) opened Tuesday with introductory remarks from representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The session was officially opened by Dr Márton Nobilis, the Secretary of State responsible for food chain safety at the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. Dr Nobilis underlined the long-standing nature of CCMAS and its importance to the food standards setting process. He also [...]

Corinna Hawkes, the Codex Secretary ad interim and Director of the FAO Division of Agrifood Systems and Food Safety, delivered the opening speech at the Republic of Korea’s Food Safety Day, this week. This 23rd celebration of Korea Food Safety Day is celebrated under the slogan “Together for food safety, Healthy South Korea!” and is the largest commemorative event in Korea’s food safety calendar. The event themes this year are digital food safety management, regulatory science using new technology and ensuring [...]

The webinar Food safety implications from the use of environmental inhibitors in agrifood systems, hosted by FAO, took place on 9 May 2024. The event aimed to stimulate discussion on the food safety aspects that need to be considered and addressed when using environmental inhibitors in agrifood systems. Magdalena Niegowska Conforti and Vittorio Fattori from the Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division at FAO presented the findings of the FAO report Food safety implications from the use of environmental inhibitors in agrifood [...]

The Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) will take place next week, 13-18 May 2024, in Budapest. As the meeting approaches we spoke to Attila Nagy, Chairperson of CCMAS43, a veterinarian and microbiologist. In this interview Attila talks about the agenda of the Committee, the unique role of Observers and the traditions of CCMAS. Attila, thank you for your time. This is the fourth time for you to chair CCMAS. How would you describe the work of this Committee?  Similar [...]

The first in a new series of “Success Stories” has been published to promote the work of the FAO-implemented and Republic of Korea-funded Action to support implementation of Codex AMR Texts (ACT) project. The story from Pakistan recounts the positive impacts of the awareness raising efforts about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that have taken place at grassroots level, where livestock carers – who are mostly women – have learnt about the need for responsible and prudent use of antimicrobials in animals. Each story [...]

The theme for World Food Safety Day, 7 June, this year is “Food safety: prepare for the unexpected,” which was chosen to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the launch of the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network, or INFOSAN. The World Food Safety Day campaign in 2024 is inspiring preparedness on food safety, which includes in an emergency situations when it is necessary to quickly identify the nature and extent of an international outbreak, or potential outbreak, of foodborne illness. [...]