Codex Committee on General Principles (CCGP)

Delegates from nearly 60 countries are meeting in Bordeaux, France from 11 to 15 March 2019 to discuss the procedural and general matters referred by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

“The effectiveness of Codex as a whole depends on how this committee covers these crucial issues”, said Sandrine Gaudin, Adviser for European Affairs, Prime Minister’s Private Office, France. The CCGP is a powerful, cross-cutting tool and “it must be a laboratory of innovation serving the entire working community”, she said.

Patrick Dehaumont, General Director for food in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said, “we must act so that our food systems can meet the vital needs of a growing population, especially those of the poor”. In a more globalized, interconnected world, with more volatile markets, in a world facing climate change, “food industry players everywhere face increasing risks of health, economic and climatic hazards”, he said.

CCGP31 Bordeaux, France: left to right: Renata Clarke, Tom Heilandt, Sandrine Gaudin, Jen-Luc Angot, Guilherme da Costa

Jean-Luc Angot, General Inspector of Veterinary Public Health, at the French Ministry for Agriculture and Food, will guide the work in CCGP this week. “I will strive to ensure that our discussions benefit the entire Codex Alimentarius community”, he said.

Renata Clarke, Head of the Food Safety and Quality Unit, FAO, said working by correspondence “touches on fundamental Codex values”. It is important that “we get it right by means of a sound, inclusive and consensus-driven process”, she said.

CCGP is a very flexible committee “with a very broad almost limitless mandate”, said Kazuaki Miyagishima, Director of the WHO's Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses. “It plays a vital role in the Codex system”, he said.

“The Codex process needs rules and procedures and its rules and procedures need to evolve while giving a secure backing to Codex as part of the United Nations System”, said Tom Heilandt, Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

World Food Safety Day

On 7 June 2019 Codex will “raise awareness of the many benefits of safe food”, said Guilherme da Costa, Brazil, Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Codex standards contribute to managing food safety risks, protecting the health of consumers and facilitating international trade. A dedicated day “will publicise the importance of food safety from production to consumption”, said da Costa.

Make Codex a forerunner in the UN system

In a dramatically changing environment Codex will need to adapt to and make use of the most effective, modern tools accessible, adopt standards that are widely used and better communicate the results of its work also in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. “We should not hesitate to make Codex a forerunner in the United Nations system”, said Gaudin.

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