As we celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives this year, 5 July brings an additional cause for global celebration: the International Day of Cooperatives. This year's special theme for the day is “Cooperatives: Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Solutions for a Better World.”

As people-first businesses, cooperatives are community-rooted and create livelihoods and fairer, more resilient societies. While they are driven by the ambition to privilege people over profit, in the case of food cooperatives, their success depends, like any food business, on ensuring safe, good quality product. Codex Alimentarius texts are as relevant to cooperatives as they are to the rest of the food production sector. As such, Codex standards, guidelines and codes of practice play a vital role in supporting the endeavour of food cooperatives in communities across the world.

This video highlights the work of one of the world’s largest cooperatives, the Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) in India, which relies on the application of Codex standards and codes of practice by its millions of smallholder members. The implementation of Codex guidance at farm level through to the AMUL processing plants and beyond means the cooperative can ensure the safety and quality of their products even when the source ingredients come from a vast number of producers.

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