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 [...]

World Food Safety Day (WFSD) activities in Samoa took place from 31 May to 7 June 2022, with the participation of over 1000 people. Activities consisted of interviews with Samoa National Codex Committee members, the screening of the interviews on television and social media, a World Food Safety Day-themed Trivia session on national television, and food-safety booths located next to the Accident Compensation Corporation Building (ACC) in Apia, Samoa.   Interviews with Tagaloa Eddie Wilson, Managing Director of Wilex, Samoa; Christina Ulberg, [...]

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, [...]

Following his confirmation as the new United States of America Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, Emilio Esteban, Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) sent a brief message to the Codex Secretariat. Throughout my tenure in Codex I have been extremely lucky to have worked with extraordinary people. Great minds and kind hearts that shared a common goal. Professionals that are willing to understand the value of science and balance that with the reality that exists in [...]

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 [...]

As part of the “Action to support implementation of Codex AMR Texts (ACT)” project, six countries have finished assessing their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation, in particular the status of implementation of measures to minimize and contain foodborne AMR. This was part of capacity building activities to manage the development and transmission of foodborne AMR through the adoption and implementation of relevant Codex standards. To learn more about this process and the expected impact, we talked to Jorge Pinto Ferreira, FAO [...]

As 2022 draws to a close, the Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, United Kingdom looks back on the outcome of the 45th Commission meeting. How would you describe the outcome of your first Commission and the return to a physical meeting? The return to physical was marked for me by the incredible positive energy when people met on the first day, many for the first time in two or three years.  I saw this energy sustained through the animated [...]

As part of the “Action to support implementation of Codex AMR Texts (ACT)” project, FAO Nepal organized a one-day workshop on the implementation of Codex standards for foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on 5 December 2022.  50 participants from the government, various ministries, academia, and private sector (feed production, aquaculture, livestock production, food safety, laboratory testing) joined the event.  “We wanted to convene AMR stakeholders in Nepal to assess the level of implementation of the Codex standards on foodborne AMR. The participants [...]

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has adopted a series of new food safety standards at its 45th session which drew to a close on 13 December 2022. Eleven new texts include guidelines on ready-to-use therapeutic foods and on the management of biological foodborne outbreaks; a code of practice for the prevention and reduction of cadmium contamination in cocoa beans, and six new commodity standards. The Commission also established 476 new maximum residue limits for pesticides and 13 maximum levels for contaminants. For [...]