The 23rd Session of the FAO/WHO Codex Coordinating Committee for Africa will take place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya from 2 to 6 September 2019, bringing together governments and experts from all over the continent to discuss food safety and trade issues of importance in Africa. Hon. Mwangi Kiunjuri, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation writing in Kenya’s Daily Nation, said the agriculture sector in Africa is “a major source of income for a majority of its [...]

The Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) is working on a text, developed following a request from UNICEF, which will provide guidance on technical and nutritional aspects of the production of Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods for children from the age of 6 to 59 months with severe acute malnutrition. Children affected by this type of malnutrition, known as SAM, need safe, palatable foods with a high energy content and adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and [...]

Two training workshops on “Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification” took place in Dhulikhel, Nepal and Paro, Bhutan on 11-12 and 14-16 August 2019, respectively. The workshops that each brought together more than twenty motivated participants, was facilitated by experts from the Codex Secretariat, WHO and India. While supporting the overall objective of strengthening the national Codex programme in general, a specific objective the workshop was to strengthen the understanding of existing and draft Codex texts of the Codex [...]

The COP is intended to provide guidance to reduce the formation of 3-MCPDE and GE in refined oils and food products made with these oils by offering good management practices for application by national authorities, producers, manufacturers and other relevant bodies.   The forty-second Codex Alimentarius Commission held in Geneva, Switzerland 8-12 July 2019, adopted a Code of Practice (COP) for the reduction of 3-Monochloropropane-1,2- diol esters (3-MCPDE) and Glycidyl Esters (GE) in refined oils and food products made with refined oils. The [...]

by Zhihua Ye, Joint FAO/IAEA Division-IAEA. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), through the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture (the “Joint FAO/IAEA Division”), support and implement activities related to the improvement of food safety and control systems. These activities are therefore closely related to the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and several of its committees, such as CCPR, CCCF, CCRVDF and CCMAS. The Joint [...]

Experts gathered in Geneva, Switzerland 16-17 July 2019 for the first meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Nutrition (JEMNU). The Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) is currently discussing the most appropriate nitrogen to protein conversion factor (or factors) to use in estimating protein content of soy-based ingredients and milk-based ingredients used in infant formulas and follow-up formulas. The current approved Codex methodology to determine protein is to detect nitrogen and then convert to protein [...]

The Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) is updating its keystone text to create a one-stop shop for methods of analysis that will ensure easy access for those using Codex standards. The General Standard on Methods of Analysis and Sampling, CX234, supports many of the other standards in Codex by providing the methods necessary to ensure compliance with Codex texts. The adoption of a new general structure for this fundamental standard at CAC42 in July 2019 heralds a new [...]

The Codex Alimentarius Commission has adopted a new strategic plan for the period 2020-2025 to advance the mandate of Codex for the next five years, underpinning the high priority for food safety and quality that Members and the parent bodies FAO and WHO envisage for Codex in carrying out its responsibilities and unique purpose to protect consumer health and ensure fair practices in the food trade. The plan highlights a new focus on promoting the relevance and use of Codex standards [...]

Speaking at the margins of CAC42 at a side event on capacity building initiatives, representatives of FAO and WHO emphasized the importance of the tools they develop based on relevant Codex texts, which enable countries to better understand and apply standards in their national context. The latest in the series is the Joint FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool, which has been piloted in numerous countries across several regions. “A system will only work if all its components are looking towards [...]

International governmental and non-governmental organizations, taking advantage of the global interest generated by the International Food Safety Conference in Addis Ababa in February 2019, discussed the Future of Food and the role Codex can play when dealing with e-commerce, during an event held at the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Geneva on 11 July 2019. Panellists discussed the challenges facing regulatory bodies and Codex as shopping online redirects the path our groceries take from farm to fork, offering consumers ever greater choice [...]