The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) have served as scientific advisory bodies to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, to member countries and other interested parties since the 1960s. Considerable changes have taken place in the procedures and complexity of assessments of chemicals in food since the preparation of the original guidance documents for the work of JECFA and JMPR (EHCs 70 and 104). In order to reflect significant advances in chemical analysis, toxicological assessment, and risk assessment procedures, this detailed monograph on the methods and principles for the risk assessment of chemicals in food was developed.

Food inspection, based on risk analysis, is a vital component of a modern food control system. Food inspection is essential to protect consumers by implementing adequate food controls to ensure domestically produced or imported food is properly handled, stored, manufactured, processed, transported, prepared, served and sold in accordance with the requirements of national laws and regulations. This manual introduces a risk-based inspection approach and procedures for primary production operations and food processing establishments, and is composed of six parts.

The paper aims to identify potential impacts of anticipated changes in climate on food safety and their control at all stages of the food chain. The purpose is to raise awareness of the issue and to facilitate international cooperation in better understanding the changing food safety situation and in developing and implementing strategies to address them.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR; also used for "antimicrobial resistant" in this document) is a major global public health concern and a food safety issue. When pathogens become resistant to antimicrobial agents they can pose a greater human health risk as a result of potential treatment failure, loss of treatment options and increased likelihood and severity of disease. Problems related to AMR are inherently related to antimicrobial use in any environment, including human and non-human uses. The use of antimicrobial agents in food producing animals/crops provides a potentially important risk factor for selection and dissemination of AMR microorganisms and determinants from animals/food crops to humans via the consumption of food

This document contains food additive specifications monographs, analytical methods and other information, prepared at the sixty-ninth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which was held in Rome, Italy, from 17 to 26 June 2008. The specifications monographs provide information on the identity and purity of food additives used directly in foods or in food production. The main three objectives of these specifications are to identify the food additive that has been subjected to testing for safety, to ensure that the additive is of the quality required for use in food or in processing, and to reflect and encourage good manufacturing practice. This publication and other documents produced by JECFA contain information that is useful to...

This report draws attention to the threat of viruses as a risk to public health when they are present in food. Viruses require special attention because they behave differently from bacteria, and because currently used control measures typically either have not been validated and there is not a good understanding of their efficacy towards viruses, or are not effective in controlling virus contamination. Data from recent studies have shown that foodborne viral infections are very common in many parts of the world despite the measures already in place to reduce bacterial contamination.

This FAO/WHO Expert meeting was convened on 5-9 May 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, to address the request for scientific advice received from the 39th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) on the microbiological hazards associated with leafy vegetables and herbs. In responding to the questions posed by the CCFH, the meeting addressed the pathways for contamination, survival and persistence of microbiological hazards associated with leafy vegetables and herbs, and the potential management options from primary production through to the consumer. Consideration was given to all aspects of the farm to fork continuum, i.e. including pre-harvest and post-harvest.