En el 18.º período de sesiones de la Comisión del Codex Alimentarius, celebrado en 1989, se acordó establecer un nuevo Comité Coordinador para América del Norte y el Pacífico Sudoccidental, que reuniera, en palabras de la delegación de Nueva Zelandia, a "países muy distantes... que tienen muchos intereses comunes".
La CCNASWP es una región extraordinariamente diversa, en la que coexisten economías plenamente maduras como las de Estados Unidos, Canadá, Australia y Nueva Zelandia, con diez pequeños estados insulares. El mayor de ellos es Papua Nueva Guinea (con más de 7 millones de habitantes) y los más pequeños son las Islas Cook y Nauru, con una población de aproximadamente 10 000 habitantes.
El coordinador regional tiene su sede en el Ministerio de Agricultura de Fiji.
Fiji tiene previsto aplicar las normas en el ámbito nacional y apoyar a todos los países de la región, especialmente a los pequeños estados insulares en desarrollo, para que desarrollen un marco normativo sólido en materia de inocuidad alimentaria. Estas iniciativas contribuirán a la mejora de la salud pública, garantizarán que los alimentos importados sean inocuos y de la calidad esperada y favorecerán un mayor acceso a los mercados internacionales.
El coordinador regional seguirá prestando apoyo al trabajo sobre normas regionales y tiene el objetivo de reforzar la participación de la región en el Codex en su conjunto. Este propósito puede lograrse continuando el desarrollo de la capacidad a escala nacional mediante la mejora del papel de los coordinadores nacionales y los puntos de contacto para una participación mayor y efectiva en el Codex.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service is recognizing September as Food Safety education Month and encouraging consumers to follow good food safety practices to protect themselves and their families from foodborne illness.
The guidance reminds consumers they should follow four simple steps for food safety: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill.
Read the USDA press release here.
Learn more about the four steps at Foodsafety.gov.
Food safety touches every aspect of our food system and defines how secure, sustainable, resilient, and nourishing a food supply can be when stressed. To mark the second annual World Food Safety Day, FAO North America convened a webinar exploring how to maintain safe supply chains during a pandemic and minimize future disruptions to build more resilient food systems and ensure food security on 12 June. Hank Cardello, Senior Fellow & Director, Food Policy Center, Hudson Institute moderated the expert discussion, [...]
The national radio station Buzz FM 96.3 in Vanuatu broadcast an interview with Hilde Kruse, Senior Food Standards Officer at the Codex Secretariat, on 15 June 2020 to share news of World Food Safety Day.
In the interview, Kruse explained that foodborne illnesses are preventable if everyone uses hygienic practices and follows food safety measures. “We need to ensure that all players are aware of their responsibility and have the tools they need to do their part,” she said, calling on [...]
Members from one of the most diverse regions in Codex met online on 26 May 2020 to review the status of the disrupted Codex meeting schedule and explore how to best proceed with work in the committee ahead of the next session.
Timothy Tumukon, Vanuatu, Regional Coordinator, for the Coordinating Committee for North America and the South West Pacific (CCNASWP), said attendance from around the globe “showed the commitment from all countries to work of Codex and food safety, especially in [...]
FAO North America invites you to join a webinar on food safety solutions to strengthen food systems for resilient food security to enhance health and well-being. Speakers will examine efforts to maintain safe supply chains through the pandemic and explore actions needed to minimize future logistics disruptions and build more resilient systems and processes.
The webinar will take place on 12 June at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (GMT – 4)
See the programme and register here: https://fao.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vOUoWNnzQ161d6RixLbS7g
Raj Rajasekar, Senior Programme Manager, Ministry for Primary Industries - New Zealand.
The Executive Committee informal virtual meeting held on 12 May 2020 provided a timely opportunity to reflect on the impact of the current pandemic on the work of Codex and some of the strategic challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the world since the beginning of the year has had a huge impact on the work of Codex and many other multilateral institutions. The [...]
With new staff constantly rotating through the 189 Codex Contact Points (CCPs) around the globe, bringing a national Codex team’s skill set up to date is an essential part of a CCP’s duties if comments on Codex texts by national experts are to be submitted online and on time.
The Codex Secretariat recently delivered a webinar training on electronic working groups (EWGs) and the online commenting system (OCS), catching the Australian team early in the morning just as in Codex HQ [...]
The 15th session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for North America and South West Pacific, is taking place in Port Vila, Vanuatu 16-20 September 2019. Addressing delegates at the opening ceremony, the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity, Moses Amos, speaking on behalf of the Minister, urged Codex to deal with the many modern-day challenges affecting food safety and trade in the region.
develop policies which best suit our situations
“Our region, comprising four of the [...]
The Codex North America and South West Pacific region (CCNASWP) brings together a rich mixture of countries. Developed countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States combine with ten countries from what are known as Small Island Developing States (SIDS), comprising The Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the current Codex Regional Coordinator, Vanuatu.
Because of their geographic isolation or limited natural resources, SIDS often share a unique set of [...]
As Europe goes to bed and the Americas think about finishing work for the day, in Samoa it is already the first #WorldFoodSafetyDay.
As part of this celebration, FAO is highlighting its work in Samoa with partners in promoting food safety.
This week, FAO and the Samoa Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour are launching a Technical Cooperation Programme project. The objective of the project is to address the technical capacity challenges facing the Samoa National Codex Committee and relevant stakeholders. The [...]
