The International Dairy Federation (IDF) is the global voice of dairy towards stakeholders and intergovernmental organizations and an NGO observer in Codex. Nico van Belzen is Director General and spoke to Codex about AMR. Codex: Antimicrobial Resistance is not constrained by geographic borders therefore limiting the development of AMR requires the implementation of global strategies. Why is it important today to raise the awareness of all stakeholders involved?  van Belzen: The spread of AMR threatens our ability to treat common infectious diseases, resulting in [...]

Steve Wearne is Director of Policy and Science Group at the UK Food Standards Agency and In July 2017 he was elected as Vice Chair of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. He also chaired the 2016 Codex physical Working Group on antimicrobial resistance in London.   For Antimicrobial Awareness Week we spoke to Steve about the importance of antimicrobial resistance as an issue, about the agricultural use of antimicrobials, and about national and international action on the issue, of which the work of [...]

More than 50 standards and 30 new work proposals to be examined at CAC40 More than 600 delegates from over 120 countries will gather in Geneva this week to take important decisions on international food safety standards. Over 50 standards will be examined together with more than 30 proposals for development of new work or revisions of current Codex texts. Highlights Highlights of the meeting include decisions on: Guidelines on nutrition labelling (nutrition information on food packaging for consumers) Code of hygienic practice for fresh fruits [...]

Food safety and food standards are crucial to unlock the potential of an important tool to fight hunger, which is trade. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.   Trade in food is difficult to imagine without standards. Food standards give confidence to consumers about the safety, quality and authenticity of what they eat. By setting out a common understanding on different aspects of food for consumers, producers and governments, harmonization on the basis of international standards makes trade less costly and more inclusive. [...]

World Food Safety Day will raise awareness of the global threat posed by foodborne diseases and reinforce the need for governments, the food industry and individuals to do more to make food safe and prevent these diseases. Ren Wang Director FAO Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection Yesterday (Wednesday 5th July) the 40th session of FAO Conference adopted a draft resolution, to be transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations with a view to having the General Assembly of the United Nations [...]

If they are to be used, standards will have to keep up with what is happening on the market. Dr Howard Porter, CEO of BEAMA and board member of ORGALIME.   BSI Conference Standards increasingly matter wherever you go and whatever you do. On Thursday 22nd of June, the BSI Group hosted a one day conference in Edinburgh to discuss some of the major questions coming up in the field of standardization. The event gathered standards professionals from 50 countries representing standards bodies, consumer organizations, [...]

Anyone can now follow Codex Alimentarius meetings simply by clicking on the RSS icon. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and is a technology used to monitor rapidly changing information on the web in an organized and user friendly way.  It is identified by the little orange and white RSS icon that is found all over the world on Web sites, in particular on news sites and blogs.  By posting a "feed" on their page, web site owners allow RSS readers to search [...]

May 23rd 2017 Paris. World Organisation for Animal Health  Speech: Tom Heilandt  The actual speech as it was delivered may deviate from the speech texts made available on this website. Chers déléguées, délégués - Mesdames et Messieurs Bonjour !  Je voudrais premièrement remercier l'OIE et sa directrice générale – Dr Monique Éloit pour cette invitation et la possibilité de m'adresser à vous ici aujourd'hui. Le thème de la discussion qui suivra ces interventions individuelles est très pertinent. Toute normalisation est inutile si [...]

Feed Safety Multi-stakeholder Partnership Survey on guidance material (tools, methods, manuals, etc.) on how to conduct risk assessment for feed What is the objective of the survey? The FAO facilitated Feed Safety Multi-stakeholder Partnership is conducting this survey to take stock and collect currently available material (e.g. tools, methods, manuals) on how to conduct risk assessment for feed. This is done, as part of preparing practical guidance and training materials (manual and other tools) to support the implementation of the Codex Alimentarius [...]

The Codex Secretariat has published the report of the working group on AMR hosted by the UK and co-chaired by the USA and Australia that met in London from 29 November to 2 December 2016. The report is available online as a working document of the 40th Codex Alimentarius Commission which will take place in Geneva in July. Broad consensus The London meeting completed the tasks set by the 2016 Commission and carried out the initial ground work for the Codex Task Force [...]