The 15th Berlin Agricultural Ministers’ Conference took place on 21 January 2023, with the theme “Agrifood systems transformation: a worldwide response to multiple crises". Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary, spoke of the importance of using all international fora to improve cooperation regarding global food systems. “Applying Codex standards helps remove trade barriers,” he said, explaining how a global structure like Codex can also drive and enhance policy coherence. A final communiqué from the meeting, agreed by approximately 70 countries present, underlined the [...]

A Codex expert panel discussion “Is the Codex system fit for the future?” took place on Friday 20 January 2023 at the annual Global Forum for Food and Agriculture organized, in Berlin, Germany, by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General FAO, described Codex as “a public good to serve countries in defending their standards, in protecting consumers and ensuring also fair trade.” Speaking also of the need to respond to interconnected challenges in agriculture, [...]

Following his confirmation as the new United States of America Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, Emilio Esteban, Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) sent a brief message to the Codex Secretariat. Throughout my tenure in Codex I have been extremely lucky to have worked with extraordinary people. Great minds and kind hearts that shared a common goal. Professionals that are willing to understand the value of science and balance that with the reality that exists in [...]

Jose Emilio Esteban, Chairperson of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), has been confirmed as the new United States of America Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety. In a statement following the swearing in of Dr Esteban, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: “I am confident that Dr. Esteban’s leadership and experience is the right combination to advance our commitment to maintaining public health and reducing foodborne illness.” Emilio Esteban has chaired the Food Hygiene Committee since its fortieth session [...]

As part of the “Action to support implementation of Codex AMR Texts (ACT)” project, six countries have finished assessing their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation, in particular the status of implementation of measures to minimize and contain foodborne AMR. This was part of capacity building activities to manage the development and transmission of foodborne AMR through the adoption and implementation of relevant Codex standards. To learn more about this process and the expected impact, we talked to Jorge Pinto Ferreira, FAO [...]

As 2022 draws to a close, the Chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Steve Wearne, United Kingdom looks back on the outcome of the 45th Commission meeting. How would you describe the outcome of your first Commission and the return to a physical meeting? The return to physical was marked for me by the incredible positive energy when people met on the first day, many for the first time in two or three years.  I saw this energy sustained through the animated [...]

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has adopted a series of new food safety standards at its 45th session which drew to a close on 13 December 2022. Eleven new texts include guidelines on ready-to-use therapeutic foods and on the management of biological foodborne outbreaks; a code of practice for the prevention and reduction of cadmium contamination in cocoa beans, and six new commodity standards. The Commission also established 476 new maximum residue limits for pesticides and 13 maximum levels for contaminants. For [...]

The 53rd session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, hosted by the United States of America opened in San Diego, California on 27 November 2022, with over 200 participants from 63 countries registered to take part. The keynote address was given by Linda J Harris, Professor of Cooperative Extension in Microbial Food Safety, Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. Linking the realities of water scarcity and foodborne outbreaks in the United States to the work of [...]

The latest edition of the Codex magazine has been published to coincide with the 43rd Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC45) taking place from 21-25 November 2022 in Rome. CODEX – a year in transition, tells the story of the core activities that take place between one Commission and the next and that lead to CAC45 being able to set over 20 standards protecting consumer health and facilitating trade. Contributions from all regions, all committees and all the people in the Codex world make [...]

Food production, processing and trading technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Consequently the Codex Alimentarius Commission is expanding its set of standards to ensure that consumer health remains protected, while practices in the trade of food are fair. Today FAO/WHO are announcing the launch of a completely new series of multilingual eLearning courses on Codex accessible free of charge online and in downloadable format. “The new courses have been meticulously developed to make sure we a have an up to [...]