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 [...]

CCAFRICA Coordinator and Executive Committee Member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Dr. Moses Gathura Gichia has recently announced his retirement from public service and as the Coordinator of the Joint FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for Africa. It has been a pleasure working alongside Codex. It was just an amazing yet a profoundly rewarding experience. Dr Gathura wished Codex "every success in shaping and mapping the global path towards a better level of protecting consumer health and fair trade practices in food”. 35 years [...]

The Codex Secretariat has published the report of the working group on AMR hosted by the UK and co-chaired by the USA and Australia that met in London from 29 November to 2 December 2016. The report is available online as a working document of the 40th Codex Alimentarius Commission which will take place in Geneva in July. Broad consensus The London meeting completed the tasks set by the 2016 Commission and carried out the initial ground work for the Codex Task Force [...]

The 10th International Feed Regulators Meeting (IFRM) organized by IFIF in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) brought together a record number of feed industry representatives and government officials from 35 countries to discuss key issues including Feed Safety Risk Management Strategies and the role of animal nutrition and feeding to minimise antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The meeting was also informed on the activities of the FAO led Multi-stakeholder Partnership for Capacity Development for Feed [...]

Earlier this week there were stories in the press that the UK Food Standards Agency is warning that overcooked starchy foods can contain acrylamide, a chemical liked to cancer. Risks during high temperature cooking Recent concern over the presence of acrylamide in food dates from 2002. Scientists reported that up to “mg/kg” quantities of acrylamide could be formed in carbohydrate-rich foods during high-temperature cooking, e.g. during frying, baking, roasting, toasting and grilling.  Acrylamide (or acrylic amide) is a chemical compound with the chemical [...]

24 Jan 2017, Rome - a delegation of senior officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries met in Rome to enhance both sides of a strong relationship that sees Japan as FAO's number two donor to FAO's regular budget behind the United States. Japan has for a number of years provided extensive support to Codex through an ongoing programme of seconded officers to the Secretariat. The specialist background these officers bring, combined with [...]

This video report from CNBC Africa reviews the 22nd session of the FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for Africa which met in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this month. Reporter Charles Gitonga highlights the main challenges regarding food safety in the region and the ongoing work of the Codex Alimentarius to ensure, through establishing international food standards, that food is safe and that it can be traded fairly.  

The 20th session of the FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for the African region began yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya. The continent of Africa consists of 54 very diverse countries covering 11.7 million square miles. Trade in region now runs in excess of 50 billion USD a year. Delegates from the 49 countries that make up the CCAFRICA region are meeting to address the food safety and trade issues most relevant to Africa. Hon Adan Mohammed opens CCAFRICA22 Hon Adan Mohammed, Cabinet Secretary for the Kenyan [...]

As a busy period of Codex activities gets underway starting with the FAO/WHO Regional Coordinating Committee for Africa next week (16th January) in Kenya, the Codex Secretariat has conducted a brief review of the highlights of 2016. 39 new texts The core business in Codex is developing international standards and the 39th Commission adopted 39 new and revised texts last year. These included completion of the Code of Practice on Fish and Fishery Products and the subsequent adjournment of the Fish Committee. Ensuring good [...]

On December 21st, Codex Secretary Tom Heilandt spoke to the Chinese National Codex Committee at the annual meeting in Beijing that brings together the numerous ministries involved in Codex work. Annual Codex Report Chaired by Dr Fan Yongxiang of The National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment and hosted by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the session heard reports on current activities and future initiatives regarding food safety and international standards. More than 20 representatives from the China Food Industry Association [...]