China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) will celebrate the second World Food Safety Day (WFSD) in various publicity campaigns on 7 June 2020. The major initiatives planned for the Day include online interactive games, popular science animation videos, popular science lecture videos, popular science picture books and flyers that depict a food safety topic or issue. These initiatives will focus on raising awareness towards food safety among consumers and implementing "food safety, everybody’s business" as the theme of [...]

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is in full gear, promoting this year's World Food Safety Day campaign among its community as a key moment to raise awareness and urge action. GFSI’s own plans to observe World Food Safety Day: 5 days, 5 videos, 5 calls to action!  In the week leading up to 7 June, GFSI will post a brief video every day, each addressing one of  the 5  calls to action. They invite your engagement throughout the campaign for World Food Safety Day [...]

Prepared by the Chairperson of Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) in cooperation with Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten food security due to its impact on global food supply chains. Whilst the pandemic does not create new problems, it can exacerbate existing challenges as a result of changes to food supply. The importance of the global food trade and [...]

The Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Guilherme da Costa, Brazil, has written to FAO suggesting the cancellation of the 43rd Codex Alimentarius Commission session planned for July 2020 in Rome and to explore the opportunity to hold an online Executive Committee session to ensure that standard setting work can continue. In the communication, Da Costa expresses his concern that expert delegations will not be able to gather in Rome for the Commission not only due to global travel restrictions currently [...]

Anyone in the region under 30 years old can enter the contest called ‘Be young, be food-safe, be heard’. The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific is calling for submissions of photos or posters that depict a food safety topic or issue that occurs at any point in the food supply chain. Video entries should address a food safety issue that participants face in their daily lives, revealing the habits, practices, behaviours or norms that cause the issue [...]

Members of the Codex Executive Committee met up via online video conferencing technology for an informal meeting on 2 April 2020. Discussions revolved around the subsidiary body meetings that have either been cancelled or postponed and how to maintain the momentum of standards development work that is already underway. The Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission Guilherme da Costa, Brazil, said: “This is a completely unexpected situation for us when we take a look at our field of work. Producers, transporters, [...]

In times of self-isolation and quarantine we all rely more than ever on a safe and efficient food supply chain to ensure that food is readily available in every home.  As food shopping in stores and markets becomes more difficult for consumers because of the measures to reduce contact and avoid the person-to-person spread of coronavirus, governments are doing all they can to keep food available on the shelves. To ensure this, the food itself and the people working hard to [...]

COVID-19 and the related response from governments across the globe has led to the postponement or cancellation of numerous Codex subsidiary body meetings scheduled to be held in 2020. However, food safety remains an important issue and the Codex Secretariat is working together with Host Secretariats, Chairs of Committees and Chairs/Vice-Chairs of Electronic Working Groups (EWGs) to ensure that the standards development work can continue even if the committees cannot meet this year. Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary confirmed that electronic working groups [...]

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to interrupt the meeting and events schedules of all organizations worldwide, the Codex Secretariat in conjunction with the governments that host Codex meetings has announced that eight meetings have either been postponed or cancelled, calling into question whether the Codex Alimentarius Commission will go ahead in Rome, Italy in July 2020. In an extended interview, Codex Secretary Tom Heilandt explains the contingency plans being put in place to mitigate the loss of meetings from the Codex [...]

The host secretariat of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CCRVDF) has confirmed that the upcoming session, due to be held in San Diego, USA from 25-29 May 2020 has been postponed due to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. In collaboration with the Codex Secretariat, discussions are underway to explore if the meeting could be rescheduled for early 2021 at the same location. Further details on new dates and on the work of the committee will be published [...]