A joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Animals was held at the Headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva from 26 February to 2 March 2007. The objective was to provide scientific advice to FAO/WHO and their Member States on two sets of questions regarding: i) marker and reporter genes; and ii) non-heritable applications. The Codex ad hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology had specifically requested advice on these questions. This Consultation built upon the conclusions and recommendations from the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on the Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Animals, including Fish (FAO/WHO 2004). A variety of reporter and selectable marker genes are...

The monographs in this volume of the FAO JECFA Monographs on the residues of, statements on, or other parameters of the veterinary drugs on the agenda were prepared by the invited experts for the sixty-sixth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) held in Rome, Italy, 22-28 February, 2006. This was the seventeenth meeting of JECFA convened specifically to consider residues of veterinary drugs in food animals. The Committee has evaluated residues of veterinary drug s in food animals at the 12th, 26th, 27th, 32nd, 34th, 36th, 38th, 40th, 42nd, 43rd, 45th, 47th, 48th, 50th, 52nd, 54th, 58th, 60th, and 62nd meetings (Ref. 1-15 and 19-22, respectively).

Ensuring safe food is essential for the protection of human health and for improving the quality of life in all countries. The importance of safe food, whether domestically produced and consumed, imported or exported, is well known by the countries of the Americas and the Caribbean. An estimated 57,000 deaths have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of food- and waterborne diarrhoea in 2004, but even this estimated burden likely greatly underestimates the true magnitude of the food-borne disease problem in the region. Each food-borne disease outbreak results in a number of direct and indirect costs, in addition to the resultant human suffering. Furthermore, food safety is foundational to all other issues in the area of...

This paper includes joint FAO and WHO work to evaluate the latest information and scientific evidence available on the functional and safety aspects of food probiotics, as well as the methodology to assess such aspects, by bringing together worldwide scientific experts in the field. It includes the reports of the expert consultation and of the working group. These reports provide scientific advice in relation to the safety assessment of probiotics, general guidance for their evaluation and on specific questions in relation to their pathogenicity, toxigenicity, allergenicity, as well as to their functional and nutritional properties. The guidelines for the evaluation of probiotics in foods were developed as part of this joint effort, providing criteria and methodology to assess the efficacy...

Food safety and quality are essential for food security, public health and economic development. Improving food safety is necessary to increase food security, which exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, which meets their dietary needs and cultural preferences to have an active and healthy life (World Food Summit Declaration, 1996). Increasing the supply of safe and wholesome food reduces the impact of food-borne diseases, which cause many illnesses and deaths, as well as detrimental economic consequences, in both developing and developed countries every year. Ensuring the safety and quality of food exports promotes international trade, which provides a means to generate growth and reduce poverty.

This volume of FAO JECFA Monographs contains specifications of identity and purity prepared at the 67 th meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), held in Rome on 20-29 June 2006. In addition, three general analytical methods were prepared and included in this publication. The specifications monographs are one of the outputs of JECFA's risk assessment of food additives, and should be read in conjunction with the safety evaluation, reference to which is made in the section at the head of each specifications monograph. Further information on the meeting discussions can be found in the summary report of the meeting (see Annex 1), and in the full report which will be published in the WHO Technical...

In 2005, the decision was made by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to revise and update Food and Nutrition Paper (FNP) No. 5, Guide to Specifications, containing general notices, general analytical techniques, identification tests, test solutions and other reference materials used in JECFA food additive specifications. Additive Specifications (FAO JECFA Monographs No. 1).

The 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (2005) requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to extend the scientific advice provided by the expert meeting on "Enterobacter sakazakii and other microorganisms in powdered infant formula" held in Geneva in 2004 (FAO/WHO, 2004). Accordingly, a technical meeting was convened on E. sakazakii and Salmonella in powdered infant formula (FAO, Rome, 16-20 January 2006) to consider any new scientific data and to evaluate and apply a quantitative risk assessment model for E. sakazakii in powdered infant formula (PIF). This technical meeting also aimed to provide input to Codex for the revision of the Recommended International Code of Hygienic Practice...

This technical meeting was jointly organised by the Animal Production and the Food Quality and Standards Services of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with the Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Disease of the World Health Organization (WHO) to obtain the best available scientific advice on issues related to the use of the lactoperoxidase system (LP-s) in raw milk preservation.