Poultry production is one of the fastest-growing livestock subsectors, and this raises a number of health issues, not only for the people working with poultry but also for those consuming poultry products.
Most humans, in fact, often come into contact with poultry, either directly or indirectly. The greatest concern arising from such proximity is the risk of infection with the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus. Handling and slaughtering live, infected poultry poses the greatest hazard, but transmission can also occur through contact with droppings, feathers, organs and blood.
The consumption and handling of contaminated poultry meat and eggs can lead to food poisoning in people. The main causes of human intestinal infections from this source are bacteria, principally Salmonella and Campylobacter. Another threat to human health lies in the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in poultry production, leading to the development of antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms.
Effective control systems and policies are critical in ensuring product safety and in reducing risks to human health.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.
Codex Alimentarius, or “the Food Code”, is the global reference on food standards for governments, the food industry, trade operators and consumers. The main objectives of Codex are protecting the health of consumers, ensuring fair practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all normative work on food undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Codex safety standards are benchmark standards under the World Trade Organization Sanitary and Phytosanitary (WTO/SPS) agreements, and also serve as point of reference for the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO/TBT) agreement for issues not related to food safety.
Codex has developed several standards on poultry products as well as standards on food labelling, methods of analysis and sampling, food imports and exports, and certification systems that apply to all food products (including poultry and poultry products), such as:
- Code of hygienic practice for eggs and egg products
- Guide for the microbiological quality of spices and herbs used in processed meat and poultry products
- Guidelines for the control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken meat
- Code of hygienic practice for meat
- Code of practice on good animal feeding
- General standard for contaminants and toxins in food and feed
- General standard for food additives
- Glossary of terms and definitions (residues of veterinary drugs in foods)
- Guidance for Governments on prioritizing hazards in feed
- Guidelines for the design and implementation of national regulatory food safety assurance programmes associated with the use of veterinary drugs in food producing animals
- Guidelines on the application of risk assessment for feed
- Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) and Risk Management Recommendations (RMRs) for residues of veterinary drugs in foods
- Maximum residues limits for pesticides
- Standard for cooked cured chopped meat
- Standard for luncheon meat
- Code of practice for the prevention and reduction of dioxin, dioxins-like PCBs and non-dioxin-like PCBs in food and feed
Updated in November 2019
Related links
Codex veterinary drug residue in food online database
Codex general standard for food additives (GSFA) online database
Did you know?
Antimicrobial usage is particularly high in poultry and pigs, compared to other food-producing animals.
Most of the estimated future growth of antimicrobial use is estimated to be within the animal production sector, in particular in pig and poultry production.