[afro-nets] Food Quality and Safety at UN Standards-Setting Body

[Caludio Schuftan <CLAUDIO@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Food Quality and Safety Tops Annual Meeting of UN Standards-
Setting Body
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New York, Jun 28 2004 12:00PM

Issues of food quality and safety ­ from the farm to the con-
sumer?s table ­ tops the agenda of the annual meeting this week
of a standards-setting body established by the United Nations
agricultural and health agencies.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, which convened today in Ge-
neva, is set to approve a code of practice on good animal feed-
ing that would establish a feed safety system for food producing
animals. The new system would take into account relevant aspects
of animal health and the environment in order to minimize risks
to the health of consumers.

The Commission is also expected to formally approve work to re-
vise the 23-year- old recommended international code of practice
for foods for infants and children, including cases of formula
contamination.

During its weeklong 27th session, the Commission will also con-
sider re- establishing the ad hoc intergovernmental task force
on foods derived from biotechnology in a bid to keep up with its
fast-changing applications and the increasing interest of con-
sumers in the potential health impact of genetically modified
foods.

The Commission was set up in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (http://www.fao.org/) (FAO) and the World Health
Organization (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/en/) (WHO) and has
170 Member States plus the European Community.

The Commission traditionally met once every two years but shifts
this year to meet yearly in response to a joint FAO-WHO evalua-
tion, which called on Codex to speed up its work and adapt to
the ever- increasing demands of member countries.

Last year the WHO World Health Assembly called on Codex to be-
come more effective at managing health risks in food.