The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), chair of the United Arab Emirates Codex Committee (UAE-NCC) organized a workshop on the “Evaluation of National Codex Programmes in the United Arab Emirates” on 14 and 15 May 2025, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MOIAT), being the Codex Alimentarius Focal Point, and the Global Food Science Society (GFoRSS).

The members of the UAE-NCC as well as representatives from Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority, other municipalities, universities, and stakeholders from the private sector related to food safety participated in this workshop.

The workshop included technical sessions that were dedicated to explaining the FAO/WHO Diagnostic Tool for Assessing the Status of National Codex Programmes (The Codex Diagnostic Tool) and the methodology and the evaluation procedures, with the aim of conducting a comprehensive, manageable and simplified evaluation that enables the achievement of a consensus and evidence- based assessment.

The Codex Diagnostic Tool includes three main principles:

1. Core mechanisms and related processes for consultation (communication) and management of Codex work
2. Knowledge and understanding of Codex work
3. Policy framework and maximizing use of Codex work at the national level.

During the workshop, a review of the working groups’ findings for each principle was subject to an open discussion during the plenary. Then consensus-based decisions on discrepancies between groups were achieved and the final assessment of preliminary results for each element was validated.

The workshop was concluded with a summary of the main recommendations that include, among others:

-        the need for more governance of communication processes between the different Codex national programme partners
-        the importance of establishing controlled procedures for various communication and consultation processes
-        keeping the stakeholders’ updated on the national Codex programme.

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