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Food safety and quality

Codex alimentarius

The Codex Alimentarius, or “Food Code”, is a collection of international standards, guidelines and codes of practice to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade. Codex standards are used worldwide to harmonize national food safety regulations and are recognized in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures as the international reference point for food safety. When food producers and traders comply with Codex standards, consumers can trust the safety and quality of the products they buy and importers can have confidence that the food they import meets Codex specifications.

The standards are adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which currently comprises 188 Member Countries, 1 Member Organization (the European Union) and more than 230 Observers (intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies). The Commission, also known as the CAC, was established in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade. The legitimacy and universality of Codex standards depend on the effective participation of all Codex Members.
FAO’s work in support of Codex

Codex standards are based on the best scientific and technical knowledge available. FAO works in collaboration with WHO to provide scientific advice in support of Codex Alimentarius’ standard setting activities, a foundational element of global food safety governance. This includes holding a number of annual expert meetings, including the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Nutrition (JEMNU), as well as ad hoc expert meetings. FAO and WHO also actively support relevant Codex committees, including those focusing on food additives, contaminants in foods, pesticide and veterinary‑drug residues, and analysis and sampling methods.

FAO’s food safety capacity development activities support developing countries and countries in transition to participate more effectively in Codex and to translate Codex standards into national legislation or regulations through a wide range of activities, both upstream and downstream of standard setting. This support includes:

  • assisting countries to formulate national legislation based on Codex, and to implement and enforce food standards harmonized with Codex;
  • strengthening national processes for consultation, communication and management of Codex work;
  • establishing policy frameworks and the use of Codex as a basis for national food control;
  • developing capacities of countries to contribute with data and expertise to the development of scientific opinions that underpin Codex discussions.
These activities are implemented using FAO’s training resources and e-learning courses to strengthen knowledge of Codex rules and procedures and to improve national planning for Codex participation and the preparedness of Codex delegations.
Publications
Trade and Food Standards
2017

This publication explains how international food safety standards are set through the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...

FAO/WHO Diagnostic tool for assessing status of national Codex programmes
2017

The purpose of this Codex Diagnostic Tool is to provide a framework for countries to carry out a self-assessment of the current status of the national...