As the 53rd Session of Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) gets underway virtually from 4 to 8 July, 2022, the Codex Secretariat spoke to the new Chairperson of the committee Guibiao YE, from hosts China. Tell us about your role in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/ICAMA? I have been engaged in the management of pesticide registration in the Institute for Control of Agrochemicals of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for nearly 30 years. Over the last three [...]

USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative, EatSafe: Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food, has honored this year’s World Food Safety Day (WFSD) with a special focus on traditional markets. The program’s aim is to to enable lasting improvements in the safety of nutritious foods in informal markets by focusing on the consumer. To commemorate this year’s WFSD, EatSafe led a series of activities, including blogs, events, resources, and even a podcast discussing what it means to “foster a culture of [...]

In opening remarks to the 82nd session of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, taking place virtually from 20-24 June 2022, Maria-Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General FAO recalled the vital role science-based analytical tools and normative work play in providing support to countries, especially in response to the worsening global food security situation due to the pandemic, disasters, conflict and climate change. Maria-Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General FAO “The work you oversee here in the Executive Committee is a key part of [...]

Thanking participants for their commitment to safer food and better health, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus opened the 7 June webinar by sharing the news that countries approved the updated WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety. In late May 2022, the World Health Assembly committed “for the first time to concrete targets for reducing foodborne diarrhoea, strengthening surveillance, and improving coordination,” he announced. Also relaying World Food Safety Day greetings via video message at the opening of the online event [...]

“Our mission in Codex is to be where the world comes together to create food safety and quality standards that protect everyone everywhere.  Food safety is at the core of our work,” said Codex Chairperson Steve Wearne as celebrations got underway across the globe for World Food Safety Day 2022. One in ten people worldwide fall ill from contaminated food each year and the magnitude of the global public health burden of foodborne disease is comparable to that of malaria, or [...]

As part of this year’s World Food Safety Day celebrations, the World Health Organization (WHO), together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), hosted a social media live Question-and-Answer (Q&A) event for the public on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. WHO Scientist, Simone Moraes Raszl, and Jeffrey LeJeune, FAO Food Safety Officer, discussed key facts about food safety and debunked some popular myths on Monday, 6 June 2022. The event was moderated by WHO Communications officer Yanawit [...]

As part of this year’s World Food Safety Day celebrations, the World Health Organization (WHO), together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), will host a social media live Q&A event for the public on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The event speakers, WHO Scientist, Simone Moraes Raszl, and Jeffrey LeJeune, FAO Food Safety Officer, will answer questions around this year’s theme of “safer food, better health”. Tune in to FAO and WHO social media channels on Monday 6 [...]

Food safety is everyone’s business, and to underline this fact, new information leaflets have been released in advance of this year’s World Food Safety Day. The leaflets examine five settings where food is sold or consumed: workplaces, traditional food markets, street food vending, schools and daycare centres and the home. Each leaflet explains why food safety is important in that environment and then explains easy ways for authorities, producers and consumers to keep food safe. They all end with an idea [...]

World Food safety Day will be celebrated on 7 June 2022. Codex Secretary Tom Heilandt spoke to the FAO liason office in Brussels about the theme for this year's celebration - safer food better health - and about a range of issues on his agenda in Codex.   Read the full article here.

More than 100 participants took part on 25 May 2022 in the first of a series of online events for work underway in the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS). Tom Heilandt Codex Secretary said “it is a wonderful initiative to keep these meetings informal so we can really learn together and get up to date on what’s happening”. The Codex Standard 234, Recommended Methods of Analysis and Sampling, is undergoing review to ensure the methods used in [...]