At the 26th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, held from 30 June to 7 July 2003 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, a landmark agreement was adopted on how to assess the risks to consumers from foods derived from biotechnology, including genetically modified foods. These guidelines lay out broad general principles intended to make the analysis and management of risks related to foods derived from biotechnology uniform across Codex`s 169 member countries. The Commission adopted the Draft Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology, Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Recombinant-DNA Microorganisms, Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants and the Proposed Draft Annex on Possible Allergenicity Assessment. The report of the meeting will be made available at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/reports.asp. For further information, contact [email protected].

20/07/2003