The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) has requested that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the united Nations and the World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) provide scientific advice on how Performance Objectives (PO) and Performance Criteria (PC) can be utilized to achieve Food Safety Objectives (FSO). The ultimate goal is to produce a reference document that will assist CCFH and countries in using risk assessment to develop risk management measures. This Working Group was assigned the task of interpreting data and information on Vibrio vulnificus illness associated with the consumption of oysters, including the FAO/WHO Risk Assessment of Vibrio vulnificus in Raw Oysters (FAO/WHO, 2005), and transforming it into practical guidance that can be used by risk managers to elaborate...

All Codex Members and observers are encouraged to participate in the process to develop Codex texts, through sending written comments and attendance at meetings. However, Codex sessions are complex events and require good preparation to ensure smooth operation and timely decision making. This document aims to assist those who are attending a Codex meeting for the first time.

This volume contains specifications of identity and purity prepared at the 65th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), held in Geneva, 7 - 16 June 2005. These specifications should be considered only in conjunction with the report of the above meeting which will be printed in the WHO Technical Report Series. Toxicological monographs of the substances considered at the 65th meeting of JECFA will be published in the WHO Food Additives Series. The general principles applied in the elaboration of specifications established at the earlier JECFA sessions have been published in the Principles for the Safety Assessment of Food Additives and Contaminants in Food, WHO Environmental Health Criteria, No. 70, 1987. The specifications of identity...

The Members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and of the World Health Organization (WHO) have expressed concern regarding the level of safety of food both at national and international levels. Increasing foodborne disease incidence over the last decades seems, in many countries, to be related to an increase in disease caused by microorganisms in food. This concern has been voiced in meetings of the Governing Bodies of both Organizations and in the Codex Alimentarius Commission. It is not easy to decide whether the suggested increase is real or an artefact of changes in other areas, such as improved disease surveillance or better detection methods for microorganisms in foods. However, the important issue is whether...

Outbreaks of cholera have been associated with consumption of seafood including oysters, crabs and shrimp (Oliver and Kaper, 1997). In the early 1990s, a pandemic of cholera swept through South and Central America. The outbreaks seemed to begin in Peru, where there were more than 400 000 cases and 4 000 deaths (Wolfe, 1992). However, the mortality rate may have been higher but for the readily available oral electrolyte stations throughout Latin America, established as a precaution when WHO anticipated the pandemic would jump from Africa to Latin America. Although no cases of cholera were associated with the consumption of commercial seafood, the industry, including shrimp exports, were negatively affected. The outbreak in the 1990s cost Peru US$ 770 million...

The increasing globalization of food trade and the harmonization of food standards and food safety measures have led to significant changes in the international and national regulatory frameworks for food. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) named the Codex Alimentarius as the source of international standards on food safety, which has had a profound impact on the status of Codex standards, guidelines and recommendations in international food trade, particularly among members of the WTO. In addition, there is an increasing recognition of the need to integrate and improve coordination of regulatory activities among national and international bodies to better protect human, animal and plant life and health, as well as...