It is crucial to understand and become familiar with the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene and how the principles contained therein are integrated into legislation or influence national, regional, public, and private standards. However, engaging with formal texts can be challenging. 

Countries have asked FAO to provide more accessible guidance on Codex standards. In addition to supporting competent authorities in their mandated work, such guidance can be of use for academia and educational institutions focused on food safety. 

FAO has years of experience in delivering food safety capacity development programmes in low-and middle-income countries. Based on the materials from these programmes, and to address the request from its Members, FAO, in collaboration with the University of Guelph, Canada, developed the GHP and HACCP Toolbox for Food Safety. 

To complement the toolbox and to explain the thinking behind its development, the team has published a manuscript detailing the approach and providing a strong link to Codex Alimentarius. 

For those interested, the manuscript, titled “Development of an Online Food Safety Toolbox Based on the Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene: Engaging Users Through Mapping, Chunking, and Learn-By-Asking,” is available in the Food Quality and Safety Journal (open access).