Sarah Cahill has been appointed as the new Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission

Before joining the Codex Secretariat in 2018, where she served as a Senior Food Standards Officer for six years, Sarah Cahill led the FAO Secretariat of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA), responsible for overseeing the provision of scientific advice on microbiological hazards in a wide range of foods, from fresh produce to meat and fish. Her wide experience also comprises working on the provision of scientific advice to other UN agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the safety of specific foods destined for food insecure and vulnerable populations. 

With FAO, Sarah Cahill has also worked on increasing the accessibility of risk assessment and scientific advice to the FAO and Codex Membership through the development of tools and approaches to support evidence-based decision-making in food safety management and in the area Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), supporting the development of FAO's first AMR action plan on AMR (2016-2020), capacity development projects scientific advice on foodborne AMR.

“My last six years working with the Codex Secretariat, and prior to that in the area of scientific advice to Codex, have been invaluable to me in getting to know the work of Codex from different perspectives - says Sarah Cahill - It has also given me the opportunity to work with and get to know many Codex Members and Observers, to understand the depth of their commitment to the work and goals of Codex and to the global family which it constitutes. In this new role I look forward to continuing to build on those foundations and commit to support the incredible work of Members and Observers to ensure the ongoing development of the Codex Alimentarius or Food Code. Together - concludes the new Codex Secretary - we can effectively guide Codex through the myriad of challenges that the changing global context presents and ensure that the Codex Alimentarius Commission continues to develop standards that are relevant and fit for the purpose of protecting the health of consumers and facilitating fair practices in the food trade in today’s world”.

Sarah Cahill holds a bachelor’s degree in science and worked in the dairy and beverage sectors before going on to receive her Ph.D. in food microbiology from University College Dublin, Ireland in 1999. She is a regular contributor to international food safety conferences and an active member of the International Association of Food Protection.