Ahead of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) meeting that opens next week in Brisbane, Australia, new Chair Fran Freeman spoke to Codex. Q. Many in the Codex world may not know you as you lead the upcoming CCFICS session for the first time. Can you tell us something about you? Having spent most of my career working on domestic and international issues affecting Australian agriculture, I am acutely aware how important it is for international [...]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is holding a webinar on “Food Safety in a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency” on 23 October 2018 at 11:00-14:30 UTC. The web-based discussion aims to help national experts be prepared in case of an emergency involving a significant release of radioactive material into the environment that makes water, local produce, milk from grazing animals and other foods unsafe for consumption. The IAEA safety standards call for [...]

Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary, and Professor Yong Ho Park, Chairperson of the Codex Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, highlighted Codex food standards as panellists in two different sessions of the 2018 International Dairy Federation (IDF) World Dairy Summit in Daejeon, Korea, this week. “Food is more than just eating, but comfort,” Heilandt said in the keynote speech of the session on food safety. “We tend to take its safety for granted. Food is fragile. That’s why we need to work together to [...]

Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), expressed support for creating a World Food Safety Day on the margins of this year’s International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit in Daejeon, Korea, where he gave the keynote address on 15 October. “The development of a World Food Safety Day in the UN is good idea,” he said, recalling that the process to establish UN observances is driven by Member States. In a meeting with Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary, and Professor [...]

Policymakers, practitioners and researchers gathered at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva for non-tariff measures week 2018 - Shaping Sustainable Trade amid Protectionism, to discuss issues surrounding the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs). NTMs are policy measures - other than ordinary customs tariffs - that can potentially have an economic effect on international trade in goods, changing quantities traded, or prices or both. Examples include Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; Technical Barriers to Trade and Contingent Trade-protective [...]

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 [...]

The FAO/WHO Codex Trust Fund has just issued “Top Tips for Smart Applications”. The three questions and seven “tips” help countries understand what to emphasize in their applications and what to avoid.  The Codex Trust Fund supports individual or group projects for a maximum period of three years. These projects are meant to address key weaknesses in national Codex structures and build the basis for effective and sustained engagement in the Codex process.  “It is important that applicant countries really identify a [...]

Staying abreast of the evolving regulatory landscape affecting the food trade can be a challenge. Yet it is vital for both public and private sector stakeholders to find out in a timely manner when changes are on their way. This is where ePing can help. ePing is of potential interest to Codex Members and Observers -government agencies, standardizing bodies, producers, exporters, importers, service providers, international organizations, research institutes and NGOs. World Trade Organization (WTO) member governments are required to notify other [...]

The FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) is currently underway at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin, Germany. Dr Roland Solecki, Head of the Department of Pesticides Safety of the Federal Institute hosting the event, highlighted the importance of JMPR’s work in supporting the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) with scientific advice. He also noted its valuable contribution to enhancing collaboration between national and international organizations to assess the risk of pesticide residues in foods. This is [...]

The Codex community (and beyond) is invited to take part in a video campaign being launched today to express support for creating a UN day dedicated to food safety. The campaign, led by the Codex Secretariat, will largely take place on Twitter  and is open to anyone interested in seeing the resolution approved at the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York, USA so that worldwide people can recognize the importance of safe food every year on 7 June. “I encourage [...]