This Chemical and Technical Assessment summarizes data and information on the maltotetraohydrolase enzyme preparation submitted to JECFA by DuPont Industrial Biosciences Division1 (Dupont, 2015). This document also discusses published information relevant to maltotetraohydrolase, the Bacillus licheniformis production organism, and the Pseudomonas stutzeri organism that is the source of the maltotetraohydrolase gene. This document uses the following expressions: “maltotetraohydrolase” refers to t he modified maltotetraohydrolase enzyme and its amino acid sequence, and the expression “maltotetraohydrolase enzyme preparation” refers to the preparation formulated for commercial use.

The expert meeting was jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in line with their overall aims of securing feed and food safety and ensuring fair practices in the trade of feed and food. The objective of the meeting was to provide an updated overview of the current state of knowledge on hazards associated with feed (including feed and feed production technologies of increasing relevance, such as insects, former food and food processing by-products and biofuel by-products). The meeting was also intended to provide guidance on the most appropriate use of this information for risk analyses purposes; to identify knowledge gaps and to prioritize future work on the...

On 27 May 2015 a webinar was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that addressed the importance of establishing effective national communication and coordination mechanisms on the topic of biosafety. Prior to this webinar, an online discussion was held to gather input and experiences of countries that were used to develop the content. During the webinar, Japan, Mauritius, Iran and Mexico shared their experiences, challenges and best practices in this field. In the interactive discussions session participants acknowledged the importance of national communication and coordination mechanisms. However, they also noted that the lack of resources, awareness or technical capacity...

On 6 July 2015, a side event to the 38th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) entitled "FAO GM Foods Platform: recent progress and future directions" was organized at the Centre International de Conférences Geneva, Switzerland. A total of 113 delegates from 49 countries attended the event. This side event provided an opportunity to understand the challenges that Member countries are facing in conducting safety assessment of GM foods. In order to respond to the Codex Members' needs, FAO would consider providing opportunities for countries to exchange information on emerging issues relevant to the safety assessment of GM foods. As many participants suggested, it is important to strengthen and maintain the fully-populated, value-added and interactive Platform. This calls upon...