The Codex North America and South West Pacific region (CCNASWP) brings together a rich mixture of countries. Developed countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States combine with ten countries from what are known as Small Island Developing States (SIDS), comprising The Cook Islands, Fiji,  Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and the current Codex Regional Coordinator, Vanuatu. Because of their geographic isolation or limited natural resources, SIDS often share a unique set of [...]

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) came into effect on 30 May 2019 after ratification by 22 countries. AfCFTA creates a single continental market as well as a Customs Union with people, goods and service able to move freely. This will be one of the world’s largest free-trade areas in terms of the number of countries, covering more than 1.2 billion people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than USD 3.4 trillion. One of the central [...]

Codex officials from Bhutan and Nepal gathered at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in New Delhi from 27th to 31st August 2019, for five days of training on Codex and insights into the functioning of Codex India. The event was part of the group Codex Trust Fund project which kicked off earlier this year. The objective of the training was to impart basic knowledge about Codex and to hear from India about how they approach Codex work management, to [...]

FAO Food Safety and Quality Officers reported at CCAFRICA23 on a Total Diet Study (TDS) that for the first time covered a wide geographical area and examined a high number of chemical contaminants including mycotoxins, dioxins, pesticides, and heavy metals. A TDS is an instrument to assess the dietary exposure of populations to specific chemical contaminants. They analyze food cooked and prepared as it would be by the consumer and are representative of the foods eaten by a particular local population. [...]

More than 130 participants from 31 Member Countries, 5 Observer Countries and 7 Observer Organizations are gathered in Nairobi, Kenya for the 23rd session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa, which kicks of the new round of regional consultations that take place every two years in Codex. Codex standards underpin regulatory, scientific and technological capacities Opening the meeting, the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya, William Ruto called for increased funding to programmes geared towards enhancing food safety and emphasised [...]

Actions to mitigate the potential for the food supply chain to act as a conduit from the myriad environmental sources of antimicrobial resistance to the public health problems of antimicrobial resistant infections in people generally focus on two areas.  First, effective antimicrobial stewardship to reduce the use of antimicrobials in agriculture; and second, surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens in food.  In the presentation of their recent research to the first side event at CCAFRICA23, Professor Alex Hughes (above) of [...]

After a break of almost three years the six Regional Coordinating Committees (RCCs) will meet again this year. From the beginning of September until mid-November, the intense period of regional meetings kicks off the post CAC42 meeting calendar. In recent years concrete efforts to revitalize the RCCs have been made to position them as key forums for discussion on food safety issues. The RCCs provide an opportunity to work together and improve coordination at regional level on Codex standards and strengthen [...]

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 [...]