Kenya, in an effort to streamline and increase efficiency for participation in Codex work recently reconstituted its National Codex Committee. On Tuesday 2 March 2021, the Codex Contact Point, housed in the Kenya Bureau of Standards held an induction programme for the newly reconstituted committee. “This move was to ensure maximum representation from all key food safety players,” said Maryann Kindiki who is the new Codex Contact Point for Kenya. Among the issues discussed were how the Codex Alimentarius Commission [...]

With remarkable speed the Polish Agricultural and Food Quality Inspectorate has already launched its awareness raising campaign as the world gears up for the 2021 World Food Safety Day on 7 June. Writing on their official website and on social media following the launch of the campaign on 18 February 2021, Poland encourages all its citizens to follow the events surrounding the UN Day and engage with others to celebrate “safe food now for a healthy tomorrow”, the theme of this [...]

Le monde entier avait les yeux rivés sur le Secrétariat français tandis que le Comité du Codex sur les principes généraux (CCGP), premier comité subsidiaire du Codex à se réunir virtuellement, donnait le coup d’envoi de la série de réunions techniques du Codex pour l’année 2021. Le Comité exécutif avait déjà démontré que des réunions de ce type pouvaient se tenir pour de petits groupes. Et avec plus de 900 délégués enregistrés, la toute première session virtuelle de la Commission en 2020 a prouvé [...]

Le 18 février, un bulletin d’information diffusé sur le compte Twitter du Codex mais aussi sur la page LinkedIn et la chaîne YouTube de la FAO a donné le coup d’envoi de la campagne de la Journée internationale de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments 2021, qui a pour thème: «Des aliments sains pour un avenir sain». Cette Journée, qui connaît un formidable essor sur le plan international à l’aube de son troisième anniversaire, appelle les gouvernements, toutes les personnes qui travaillent dans le [...]

Le lancement de la campagne de la Journée internationale de la sécurité sanitaire des aliments 2021 aura lieu le 18 février 2021 à 15 h 00 HNEC et sera notamment marqué par l’annonce du thème annuel choisi. À cette occasion, un bulletin d’information sera diffusé : il inclura plusieurs contributions de la FAO, de l’OMS, du Secrétariat de la Commission du Codex Alimentarius et du secrétariat du Réseau international des autorités de sécurité sanitaire des aliments (INFOSAN), mais aussi d’experts du monde entier, qui expliqueront pourquoi la sécurité [...]

On Friday 12 February 2021, at 16:00 (CET), 10am local time, Agrocalidad, the Phyto and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control Agency in Ecuador will host a live Facebook broadcast to present a series of figurative cartoon characters that aim to carry key food safety messages to a wide audience. “Foodborne diseases represent a serious risk in both developed and developing countries and proper food handling can go a long way to preventing most of these,” said Rommel Betancourt, Coordinator of Food Safety [...]

Welcoming delegates to the 32nd session of the Codex Committee on General Principles (CCGP) that is taking place virtually from 8 to 17 February 2021,  Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture and Food, of the host country France said that in a world facing a major pandemic, the different stakeholders in the food sector everywhere face the challenge of producing healthy and good quality food in sufficient quantity, while at the same time coping with the risk of health, economic hazards [...]

More than a year has passed since the last time a Codex technical committee met. When the Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance ended on 13 December 2019 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, nobody could imagine that there would be a 14 month wait for experts to gather once again to continue their formal deliberations of Codex business. The task of kicking off the 2021 series of meetings, with plans currently for a virtual year and online sessions, has fallen to France [...]

A webinar taking place on 5 February 2021, 12:00-13:30 CET, entitled Feed safety – Good Practices for the Feed Sector Matter, will bring together experts from FAO and the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) to discuss the importance of feed safety in the sustainable production of safe food of animal origin. The event will also see the launch of a new manual on implementing the Codex Alimentarius Code of Practice on Good Animal Feeding. Primary producers, including farmers and the feed [...]

This year is going to be a big challenge for the Codex system as the technical committees that were suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic prepare to operate for the first time virtually. Experiences with the smaller Executive Committee and the success of the 43rd Commission have shown that both small and large groups can be brought together on line, but how easy will it be, operating virtually, to iron out more complex, technical differences on pesticides, contaminants or [...]