Following the International Forum on Food Safety and Trade, held at the WTO, in Geneva, Switzerland, on 23-24 April 2019, with the support of FAO and WHO, a joint statement from the three organizations has highlighted the valuable work of the Codex Alimentarius. As global trade in food products expands and value chains become more complex, the development of international food safety standards for application at domestic levels and in international trade has become more important than ever before.  Consumers have [...]

Friday 7 June 2019 saw countries all over the world come out in support of safe food. From the islands of the South West Pacific to the heart of Europe, from all over Asia to North and South America and all countries in between, governments, producers, food processors and consumers underlined that food safety is everyone’s business. Prime Minister Modi, India offered his support and described the day “of prime importance for … well-being and health”, especially of women and children [...]

Representatives of government, food safety experts, industry and UN specialized agencies gathered in Rome on 7 June 2019 to ramp up efforts to combat foodborne illness and reaffirm that food safety “is everyone’s business” on the inaugural World Food Safety Day. Carlos Mora Gómez, Vice-Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce, Costa Rica Carlos Mora Gómez, the Vice-Minister of Economy Industry and Commerce from Costa Rica underlined how national governments, as decision-makers and policy-makers, have the challenge of guaranteeing access to safe [...]

To celebrate World Food Safety Day, Nicaragua has been promoting an initiative to increase the visibility of food safety and its importance, through the creation of murals in health centers of 153 municipalities nationwide. The murals reflect the degree of commitment of the country towards Food Safety and the importance of raising awareness among the population, with the message that "Food Safety is everyone's business". The murals highlight important aspects such as hand washing and the five keys to food safety. Other [...]

7 June 2019 is the first World Food Safety Day and later today at the United Nations in New York Codex Chairperson Guilherme da Costa will reinforce how Codex standards are a blueprint for safe food, highlighting how the international standard setting body - the Codex Alimentarius Commission - contributes to food safety and builds engagement in food safety, to protect consumer health and facilitate trade. The inaugural World Food Safety Day will call on all those who produce, supply, process, [...]

The Chilean Codex Alimentarius Secretariat, ACHIPIA, organized a seminar on 5 June 2019 entitled “Codex Alimentarius: Strengthening food safety in trade”. The aim was to attract and increase the participation of different sectors of the food industry in the national sub-committees. Speakers from the food industry association explained to participants how Codex standards and their application in production processes, help them in complying with national and international regulations on food safety and facilitating food trade, using concrete examples in which [...]

As Europe goes to bed and the Americas think about finishing work for the day, in Samoa it is already the first #WorldFoodSafetyDay. As part of this celebration, FAO is highlighting its work in Samoa with partners in promoting food safety. This week, FAO and the Samoa Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour are launching a Technical Cooperation Programme project. The objective of the project is to address the technical capacity challenges facing the Samoa National Codex Committee and relevant stakeholders. The [...]

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has recently launched a new project, the OIE Observatory, to strengthen the implementation of OIE International Standards by Member Countries. The OIE Observatory is an ambitious project still at the concept level and with a multi-phased approach. OIE is currently collaborating with The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to develop the design of the Observatory. The project has a Reference Group, in which the Codex Secretariat participates. At the OIE 87th [...]

As the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) begins in Budapest, we spoke to Attila Nagy who takes over as Chairperson at this session. A veterinarian and microbiologist, in November 2018 Attila was appointed Director of the newly established Food Chain Safety Laboratory Directorate in Hungary. Attila, thanks for your time. You were born just two years after Hungary started hosting CCMAS. What, in your view, are the three major changes in analytical methods that have taken place [...]

Guinea launched its Codex Trust Fund 2 project at a workshop held on 14 and 15 May 2019, which was marked by the presence of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry and SMEs, the Minister's Adviser on responsibility for Quality and Innovation, the DG of the Guinean Institute for Standardization and Metrology, the President of the National Codex Committee and the participation of the relevant ministerial departments (health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, environment, trade, finance, cooperation) as well as [...]