Speaking at the margins of CAC42 at a side event on capacity building initiatives, representatives of FAO and WHO emphasized the importance of the tools they develop based on relevant Codex texts, which enable countries to better understand and apply standards in their national context. The latest in the series is the Joint FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool, which has been piloted in numerous countries across several regions. “A system will only work if all its components are looking towards [...]

Following the International Forum on Food Safety and Trade, held at the WTO, in Geneva, Switzerland, on 23-24 April 2019, with the support of FAO and WHO, a joint statement from the three organizations has highlighted the valuable work of the Codex Alimentarius. As global trade in food products expands and value chains become more complex, the development of international food safety standards for application at domestic levels and in international trade has become more important than ever before.  Consumers have [...]

In a search for alternative sources of meat and in response to concerns over meat consumption, animal welfare and greenhouse gas emissions, scientists have developed the ability to grow meat from animal cells in a laboratory. The process involves taking tissue from a live animal and extracting stem cells which are then grown into muscle fibres in a bioreactor. Developing awareness of emerging issues such as this is a key component of strategic planning in Codex.   Marianne Ellis, Bath University, produces cultured meat [...]

Experts meeting in Macau, China 8 to 12 April 2019, will be discussing a proposal to provide an international reference guideline for biopesticides. The project would establish criteria to identify pesticides that generally pose fewer risks than conventional pesticides and are considered by many national regulators exempt from the need to set maximum residue limits. This Codex guideline would help countries such as Chile, which is leading the work, as they and many other countries base their regulations on the Codex [...]

World Health Day celebrations on 7 April call for “Health for all – everyone, everywhere”, and we are reminded that the Codex vision of “safe, good food for everyone, everywhere” is a part of that agenda. But at least half of the people in the world do not receive the health services they need, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Contamination of foods is the cause of a significant disease burden, which is distributed all over the world”, said Kazuaki [...]

As the Codex food additives meeting continues in Jinan, China, we spoke to FAO Senior Food Safety Officer Markus Lipp about the need and use for additives in food and who decides if they are safe. What do food additives do? Food additives are substances that have a specific function. For example, they make the food safer by preventing microbiological spoilage, they can be used to colour food or make the flavour, smell, taste, even texture more appealing. Some additives are [...]

The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) began a week-long session on Monday 11 March 2019 to discuss consolidating and updating technical guidance documents that will allow for a more current and coordinated approach to assessing microbiological hazards in food. The information provided by risk assessments helps the food industry and governments better understand and control these hazards so that food is safe for consumers. Assessing the risks associated with microbiological hazards in foods, which can occur at [...]

Medicated feed is one important route for administering veterinary medicinal products to animals, in particular to animals intended for food production. It can be difficult to administer a veterinary drug to an animal, especially in the case of smaller species typically reared in large groups such as a flock of birds or a school of fish where there would be hundreds of animals that all need to be treated at the same time. The use of medicated feed provides an simple, [...]

The role of animal nutrition and feed strategies and options for reducing the need to use antimicrobials in animal production was highlighted in a side event during a meeting of the Ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance that took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 10 to 14 December 2018. The speakers summarized the current state of the art and recent insights on how diets, gut health and the immune system interact and could contribute to disease [...]

Ahead of developing new international guidance for the control of histamine in fish and fishery products, the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene requested FAO and WHO to provide scientific information to consider whether salmonids, which have an extensive global market, should be included in this new guidance. The literature review developed by FAO and WHO on the risk of histamine development in fish of the Salmonidae family and the potential impact on human health, is now available online. Histamine is a naturally [...]