CODEX AND CONSUMERS

From their beginnings, FAO and WHO have promoted the improvement of quality and safety standards applied to food. The highest priority of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.

Codex Alimentarius on the Internet:
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FAO/19786/G. BIZZARRI

COMMITMENT IN THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS

Since its inception, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, together with its subsidiary committees, has given top priority to the protection and interests of consumers in the formulation of food standards and related activities.

Other United Nations (UN) bodies have also recognized the importance of consumer protection and, in 1985, a UN General Assembly Resolution gave rise to the Guidelines for consumer protection, published in 1986. These guidelines identify food as one of three priority areas that are of essential concern to the health of consumers, and the document specifically identifies the Codex Alimentarius as the reference point for consumer protection with regard to food.

Two relevant conferences held early in the 1990s were: the 1991 FAO/WHO Conference on Food Standards, Chemicals in Food and Food Trade (held in cooperation with GATT), which recommended continuing and strengthened consumer participation in food-related decision-making at national and international levels; and the 1992 FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition, which recommended that consumers be protected through improved food quality and safety, and outlined measures to accomplish that recommendation.

Furthermore, in 1993, FAO held an expert consultation on the Integration of Consumer Interests in Food Control.

FOOD COMMODITY AND GENERAL STANDARDS

Both Codex subsidiary bodies and the Commission give the highest priority to consumer interests in the formulation of commodity and general standards. The adopted format for standards reflects the emphasis that Codex places on ensuring that consumers receive products that are of a minimum acceptable quality, are safe and do not present a health hazard. Format provisions for commodity standards, including the name of the standard, its scope, description, weights and measures and labelling, are intended to ensure that the consumer is not misled and to induce confidence that the food item purchased is what the label says it is. The provision covering essential composition and quality factors ensures that the consumer will not receive a product below a minimum acceptable standard. The provisions concerning food additives and contaminants and hygiene are aimed at protecting the health of consumers.

Purpose of the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling

To ensure that nutrition labelling is effective:

“In providing the consumer with information about a food so that a wise choice of food can be made...”

The Codex Alimentarius contains more than 200 standards in the prescribed format for individual foods or groups of foods. In addition, it includes the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods, the General Guidelines on Claims and the Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling, all of which are aimed at ensuring honest practices in the sale of food while also providing guidance to consumers in their choice of products.

Other general standards for food hygiene, food additives, contaminants and toxins in food and for irradiated foods are of pre-eminent importance in protecting consumers’ health, and they are valued widely for this purpose.

Similarly, MRLs for pesticides and veterinary drugs and maximum limits for food additives and contaminants have been established to ensure that consumers are not exposed to unsafe levels of hazardous materials.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES, GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDED CODES OF PRACTICE

Instruments such as principles and codes have been developed for the express purpose of protecting the health of consumers against food-borne hazards. For example, general principles have been developed for the use of food additives, food import and export inspection and certification and the addition of essential nutrients to foods.

The Codex Alimentarius contains wide-ranging guidelines for the protection of consumers, including such diverse subjects as the Establishment and Application of Microbiological Criteria for Foods and Levels for Radionuclides in Foods Following Accidental Nuclear Contamination for Use in International Trade.

Food quality and safety

The 1993 FAO Expert Consultation on the Integration of Consumer Interests in Food Control identified the following issues as being of particular concern to consumers:

Standards. Consumers feel that they do not always get fair value for their money. They are discontented with food that spoils or fails to meet expectations in taste, aroma and palatability.
Nutritional quality. In many developing countries, adulteration deprives consumers of nutritional value. In developed countries, consumers are dissatisfied with inadequate nutrient information on labels.
Food control processes. While consumers are aware that food control regulations exist, they are not convinced that they are applied effectively. Some food producers and distributors feel that they can ignore the law with impunity.
Information. Consumers believe that government and industry do not provide enough information to enable them to make an informed choice. Very often, labels on food do not carry adequate, easy-to-read information. Information from government, industry and other sources is often not clear or may be conflicting.
Environmental contamination. Consumers’ concern has grown rapidly over possible environmental contamination of the food supply during the various stages of production, harvesting, processing, storage and distribution. They lack confidence in the ability of food control services to provide the necessary protection.
Irradiation and biotechnology. Consumers feel that some processes using new technology are unsafe because they have not been adequately evaluated. Reliable information about newer technologies is not always available.

It also contains codes of practice, most of which are codes of hygienic practice providing guidance on the production of food that is safe and suitable for consumption - in other words, their purpose is to protect the health of consumers. The Recommended International Code of Practice - General Principles of Food Hygiene applies to all foods. It is particularly important in protecting consumers because it lays a firm foundation for food safety and follows the food chain from primary production through to final consumption, highlighting the key hygiene controls required at each stage.

NEW AREAS: ANIMAL FEED AND FOODS DERIVED FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY

Consumer concerns in the wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow”, crisis of the early 1990s led Codex to take up the question of the safety of feed for food-producing animals. The Commission went even further than responding to the immediate crisis, and the resulting Code of Practice on Good Animal Feeding takes into account all relevant aspects of animal health and the environment in order to minimize risks to consumers’ health. It applies to the production and use of all materials destined for animal feed and feed ingredients at all levels, whether produced industrially or on a farm. It also includes grazing or free-range feeding, forage crop production and aquaculture.

The Codex Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology were developed on the basis of a pre-market safety evaluation of these foods on a case-by-case basis.

The Principles provide for post-market monitoring of potential consumer health effects and nutritional effects, as appropriate. Two detailed guidelines on the conduct of safety assessments, one for foods from DNA-modified plants and the other for foods from DNA-modified micro-organisms, include consideration of both intended and unintended effects of the genetic modification and an assessment of possible allergenicity.

CONSUMERS’ PARTICIPATION

Since its beginning, the Commission has welcomed the participation of consumers, whose organizations have been represented at its sessions since 1965.

The involvement of consumers in the Commission’s work has been the subject of explicit discussions within the Commission. Consumers’ participation in decision-making in relation to food standards and the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, for instance, was an item on the agenda of the Twentieth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, when it was agreed that it is necessary to continue working in close cooperation with consumers’ organizations.

Because of its international nature, the Commission is aware that it can only go part of the way towards involving consumers in its food standardization and related work. Therefore, the Twentieth Session of the Commission invited governments to involve consumers more effectively in the decision-making process at the national level:

“The Commission has continued to involve consumer interests in its work while recognizing that it is at the national level that consumers can make their most valuable and effective input.”

INFORMATION

The Codex Alimentarius Secretariat disseminates Codex documents to international consumers’ organizations and provides information on request. It also distributes all Commission documents and those of its subsidiary committees to Codex Contact Points in member countries. This is done in the expectation that they will be forwarded to nationally based consumers’ organizations for comment as required. All of these documents are publicly available on the Codex Web site.