FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met today with Guilherme da Costa, Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, together with three Vice Chairpersons – Mariam Eid from Lebanon, Purwiyatno Hariyadi from Indonesia and Steve Wearne from the United Kingdom. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu (right) with Guilherme da Costa, Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission   Guilherme da Costa said: "The Director-General expressed strong support for the work of Codex and for the importance of science-based international food standards."   Codex activities should be more visible, tangible and [...]

Jenny Scott is Senior Advisor in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She co-chaired the working group on the proposed draft code of practice on food allergen management for food business operators. Jenny explains the importance of the work on allergens. Jenny Scott co-chaired the Codex work on allergens with Australia and the UK  “Food allergies are an increasing food safety issue globally, resulting in many food recalls (approximately 1/3 of food recalls [...]

Dr. Mindy Brashears, the Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. addressed delegates gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA for the 51st session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene. Brashears emphasized in her welcome address that with food safety policies being constantly updated, such meetings were important “to help foster partnerships that can lead to modernization and new policies for food safety and international food standards”. Dr. Mindy Brashears, Deputy Under Secretary for Food [...]

As the Codex food hygiene committee (CCFH) begins deliberations in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, delegations from around the world have emphasised the importance of one of the main items on the agenda. The revision of the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene (GPFH), has been described by Udo Wiemer from Germany as “the most important item of the upcoming session”. In many countries the Codex text forms the basis of national legislation. “In Indonesia GPFH are adopted identically to be [...]

The Codex Secretariat held a webinar in conjunction with the WHO Country office, in which the Mongolian Codex Contact Point and colleagues had the opportunity to improve their knowledge of the Online Commenting System (OCS) and digital platform for Electronic Working Groups (eWG). Participants actively engaged in the hands-on session by asking questions and interacting with the Codex Secretariat afterward. The documents used during the training can be downloaded and other relevant materials may be requested of the trainers. “A beneficial experience” – [...]

Andean government representatives discussed on 7-8 March 2018 in Quito, Ecuador the challenges they face and the successes they celebrate in setting international standards used in trading plant products and food internationally. Contact points, representing members of the Codex Alimentarius and parties to the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), shared their experiences while seeking ways to boost subregional cooperation during a workshop, convened by the Secretariats of the two UN organizations and Corporación IG-DE. Over the course of two days, standards [...]