Interview with FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission Chair Tom Heilandt: Safer food, better health
Tom, you have been the Secretary of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission since 2014. Could you tell us a bit more about Codex, its activities and your role as secretary?
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a joint commission of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the FAO and the World Health Organization, WHO. We have 188 Member Countries, one Member Organization and 243 Observers.
I sometimes call Codex a world food safety and quality parliament. We organize around 15 meetings per year to bring people together to set international food standards to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade. We cover all areas of food production and trade, from food hygiene to food labelling – from pesticide residues to quality classes for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Before becoming the Secretary, I was already in the Codex secretariat responsible for communication and distribution of our final products: Codex standards, guidelines and codes of practice. As Secretary my role is to coordinate everything with the help of a highly qualified team of around 20 people.
It has been one of my goals to further strengthen the communication area. Codex is a process and a product – we first need to bring people together and create the environment allowing them to interact, work together and find a consensus. Then we need to disseminate our final products and make them known among stakeholders so that they will be applied and finally, we also want to reach out to the public in general so that they know more about what we are doing, and that we are not an obscure organization with a Latin name but instead creating a system that will protect everyone - everywhere.
It is a big job and more to be done but the comparative ease with which we moved during the pandemic from fully physical to fully virtual shows me that we have created a good cohesion and communication with members using new tools that are mainly available through our website.
On the 7th of June, we observe World Food Safety Day. The message for this year is “Safer food, better health”. Tell us, why is food safety so important?
Without food safety there can be no food security. Safe food is essential to human health and well-being. Only when food is safe can we fully benefit from its nutritional value and from the mental and social benefits of sharing a safe meal. Safe, nutritious food is one of the most critical guarantors for good health. Still now, every year 1 in 10 people on this planet gets sick from food. And it is not always a “simple annoying diarrhea” which passes quickly. Far too many people get severely sick and suffer over long periods or even lose their lives. Many of these are children under five years of age. These are preventable deaths. That’s why food safety is important, and why it is good to have World Food Safety Day as a reminder.
Food safety is sometimes perceived as an issue for policy makers, food producers and food processors first and foremost. What part can the average consumer play in keeping food safe?
Consumers can do a lot and they should! The consumer is the final link in the food chain and wrong behavior can render all previous efforts useless. Consumers need to learn about how to keep food safe and they should also know a bit about nutrition – looking at the label can help there.
A great way to learn about how consumers can keep food safe is through the sound guidance found in the WHO Five Keys to Safer Food: (1) keep clean; (2) separate raw and cooked; (3) cook thoroughly; (4) keep food at safe temperatures; and (5) use safe water and raw materials.
While COVID-19 turned out to not be transmitted by food, do you feel that the pandemic has impacted food safety-related issues?
While COVID-19 is not transmitted by food, we know that keeping the environment and all equipment, utensils and surfaces clean is critical to food safety. In addition, personal hygiene is vital not only for food safety but also for preventing the spread of the virus. These two elements are the essence of the General Principles of Food Hygiene including HACCP guidance established by Codex in 1969 which got a major update last year.
There was much more focus on hygiene (mask-wearing, hand washing) in the last 2.5 years which certainly has had some positive impact on food safety though it is too early to say exactly how much. These things also tend to be quickly forgotten and as soon as the pandemic is over people may switch behavior again.
The pandemic has brought change to all areas of life including the food industry and especially food delivery and internet sales.
It has changed the way we work in Codex - how we set standards. When transforming to virtual standard setting, we sought to do what we could to keep with the Codex core values of inclusiveness, collaboration, consensus building and transparency. This has been a good guide on the way and will help us – I am sure - in the transformations to come.
How does the Codex Alimentarius Commission work together with the European Union and its Member States?
The European Union is a Member Organization in Codex. This means that depending on the degree of harmonization of EU legislation on a particular topic, the EU will either act as a block or as individual countries. Before each meeting, the EU declares which situation applies to the different agenda items.
The EU is also one of the biggest donors to the Codex trust fund assisting countries to enhance their participation in Codex and EU has also been supporting the FAO/WHO scientific advice program that provides the risk assessments for Codex standards.
What do you feel will be particularly important themes in the field of food safety in the years to come? Are there any up-and-coming issues that we should be aware of?
As new foods including cell-based or 3D-printed foods made with plant-based ingredients emerge, and foods that have been consumed for centuries such as seaweed, jellyfish or insects find new markets - whether to feed a growing population or to ensure sustainable agri-food systems - there will be a need for standards to ensure those foods are safe and can be traded fairly. We are working on finding out exactly what would be useful to do because many general texts already exist that apply on any food whether new or traditional e.g., food hygiene. The science that underpins Codex work on food safety will allow the Commission to ensure we balance any food safety risks with the benefits.
Climate change is also impacting food in many ways, and we need to be alert to the implications for food safety hazards such as mycotoxins on land or marine toxins in our oceans. Food safety authorities need to be vigilant and proactive and Codex standards are a big part of that so that policymaking is timely and effective.
Antimicrobial resistance will remain an issue and it is something that many still ignore – it is not being called “the silent pandemic” for nothing. We have made progress in dealing with it and recently updated some important Codex guidance but a lot more needs to be done in a coordinated way to avoid more and more antibiotics losing their power.
Finally, another type of pandemic is the obesity and NCD rate in many countries. Standards and especially labelling which encourage reformulation of products can help, together with consumer education. The way we conceive food labeling will also change completely over the next few years. While Codex has quite a complete system for labeling which will need to be adapted to the new world of internet sales of food and QR Codes.