Codex Alimentarius - basic principles- Prof. Elisaveta Stikova M.D., Ph.D. School of Medicine University “ St. Cyril and Methodius” – Skopje Republic of Macedonia

The FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition, 1992 Recognized that: access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual, Food regulations… should fully take international standards of the Codex Alimentarius

Codex Alimentarius is: Latin term for “ Food Law” or “Food Code” Codex Alimentarius is a group of international food standards, adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and uniformly presented. The very term Codex Alimentarius is taken from the Latin term Codex Alimentarius, meaning Food Law or Legal Food Code. The Codex Alimentarius standards cover all basic food types, raw, semi-processed and processed, that are intended for distribution to the costumers. The regulations of the Codex refer to food hygiene and quality, including microbiological standards, food additives, pesticides and residues from veterinary drugs, contaminants, food labeling and marketing, methods for sampling and hazard analysis, food import and export, certification system, etc. .

Codex Alimentarius Commission FAO in 1961 and WHO 1963 passed Resolution to establish the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Responsible for Joint FAO/WHO Food Standard Program. With the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945 and the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, they took the responsibility of covering food and health related issues, in the light of the international food standards. At the World Health Assembly, held in 1953, it was confirmed that the broad usage of chemicals in food production and processing imposed itself as a new public health problem that required special attention. On its 11th session, held in 1961, the conference of FAO decided to establish the Codex Alimentarius Commission. In 1962 the Joint Conference of FAO and WHO for food standards requested from the Codex Alimentarius Commission to implement their Joint FAO/WHO program for food standards and at the same time create the Codex Alimentarius. The World Health Assembly formally accepted the joint program of FAO/WHO for food standards, completely accepting the responsibility in relation with all food health aspects, on its 16th session, held in May 1963, and accepted the Statute of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

To protect the health of consumers, Codex Objectives (1): To protect the health of consumers, To ensure fair practices in the food trade, To coordinate all work regarding food standards, The needs of the member countries of FAO and WHO for harmonization of the national legislation, protection of the consumers and their health, and facilitation of multilateral trade, are just few of the contributions that lead to long term strengthening of the role of Codex Alimentarius.

To determinate the priorities, Codex Objectives (2): To determinate the priorities, To initiate the preparation of standards, To publish the standards. The legal basis for the operation of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is determined by the Commission's statute. According to article 1 from the Statute of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, its obligations are: Protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair practices in food trade; Promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations; Determining priorities and initiating and guiding the preparation of draft standards through and with the aid of appropriate organizations; Finalizing standards elaborated after their acceptance by governments, Publishing the standards in a Codex Alimentarius either as regional or international standards, Amending published standards, after appropriate survey in the light of developments.

Codex Alimentarius Commission – structure and management The Executive Committee, The Regional Coordinating Committees, The Secretariat of the Commission.

The Executive Committee Chairperson, 3 Vice-Chairpersons, 7 Regional Representatives, 6 Regional Coordinators.

Regional Coordinating Committees: 6 Regional Committees – for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America&Caribbean, North America & Southwest Pacific, Near East. Responsible for defining the problems and needs of the region Responsible for coordination of activities. The working tasks of the regional Coordinative Committees are identical and refer to: Defining the problems and needs of the region, Promotion of cooperation and exchange of information, Development of world-wide food quality and safety standards of regional interest, Development of regional food safety and quality standards, Coordination and promotion of the activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission,

The Secretariat of the Commission: Responsible for: Formulation and development of FAO/ WHO standards, Administrative support to the Commission, Relations with the National Codex Contact Point. The Secretariat of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is a high FAO body responsible for formulation and development of FAO and WHO standards and programs. It provides full administrative support to the Commission, coordinates the activities and prepares the work for the committees. At the same time, the Secretariat is responsible for maintaining relations with the National Codex Contact bodies/institutions (Codex contact points). The Secretariat is composed of six representatives with full working time, situated in the head office of FAO in Rome.

Subsidiary bodies of the Codex Alimentarius Commission: Codex Committees: Codex committees for general principles, Committees for special types of foodstuff products. Ad-hoc Intergovernmental Special Work Groups.

Codex Committees on general issues (1) : 1. Codex Committee on General Principles, 2. Codex Committee on Food Labelling, 3. Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling,     The work of the Committees on general issues is related to the work of the committees on foodstuff products. They coordinate their activities in the development of standards for all products and their further adoption. The committees for general principles are also known as Horizontal committees. There are nine committees of this type: Committee on general principles, Codex Committee on Food Labeling, Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling, Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants, Codex Committee on Import/Export Inspection and Certification systems, Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Food.

Codex Committees on general issues (2): 4. Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, 5. Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, 6. Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants,

Codex Committees on general issues (3): 7. Codex Committee on Import - Export Inspection and Certification systems, 8. Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, 9. Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods,

Product Committees(1): 1. Codex Committee on Cocoa Products and Chocolates, 2. Codex Committee on Sugars, 3. Codex Committee on Pocessed Fruit and Vegetables, 4. Codex Committee on Fats and Oils, The Committees for separate types of foodstuff products have the responsibility to develop standards for different types of food or groups of foodstuff products. In order to differentiate them from the Horizontal Committees and to recognize their exclusive responsibility they are often called Vertical Committees. There are 11 vertical committees: Codex Committee on Cocoa products and chocolates, Codex Committee on Sugars, Codex Committee on processed fruit and vegetables, Codex Committee on fats and oils, Codex Committee on meat and animal meat hygiene, Codex Committee on fish and fishery products, Codex Committee on fresh fruit and vegetables, Codex Committee on meat milk and milk products, Codex Committee on natural mineral waters, Codex Committee on vegetable proteins, Codex Committee on cereals, pulses and legumes.

Product Committees(2): 5. Codex Committee on Meat and Polutry Hygyene, 6. Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery products, 7. Codex Committee on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables,

Product Committees(3): 8. Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products, 9. Codex Committee on Natural Mineral Waters, 10.Codex Committee on Vegetable Proteins, 11.Codex Committee on Cereals, Pulses and Legumes.

Ad-hoc Intergovernmental Codex Special Groups for: biotechnologically produced food, animal feeds, fruit juices.

Codex Alimentarius Commision Highest priority: Formulation of commodity and general standards The basic task of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is to prepare different types of food standards and to publish them in the Codex Alimentarius. Establishing product standards and also general standards is the basic priority in the work of the commission. This manifests the emphasized interest of the international community in ensuring high levels of consumer protection. The emphasis is put on the creation of market conditions where only the quality food will be available, with minimum acceptable quality and without any hazards to the health of the population.   Under the term standard we understand recommendations given by the Commission which are submitted to the governments of the member countries for adoption, in order to be accepted and later implemented in the national regulation. There is a uniform (unified) procedure for acceptance of Codex standards, composed of 8 phases, but there is also an accelerated or shortened procedure, where the process of giving proposals, comments, and the adoption of the standards is done in 5 phases.

Codex Standards include (1): Scope of the standard, Description of the standard, Basic structure and quality factors, Weights and measures,     Labeling, Scope of the standard, including its correct name i.e. the name of the relevant food, Description of the standard and definition of the product, the basic material from which it is produced, description of the production process and packing, Basic structure and quality factors (minimum standards for the relevant food), Weights and measures, Labeling- according to the Codex general standards for labeling of packed food. The purpose of the name of the standard, the scope, description, weight and labeling is to ensure that the consumers would not be misled and that the characteristics of the product correspond to its declaration.

Codex Commodity Standards include (2): Contaminants, Hygiene, Food additives, Methods for analysis. The standards related to the basic composition and the quality factors ensure that no substandard quality may be purchased, while the standards of food additives and contaminants as well as the hygiene standards protect the health of the consumers.

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius: Codex Alimentarius is composed of 14 volumes distributed in 17 books Each book (by group of products) contains standards, guidelines...

Achievements: 237 Food Standards, 43 Codes of Practice, 33 Guidelines, 197 Pesticides evaluated, 3274 Limits for pesticides residues, 289 Limits of veterinary drug residues, 1300 Food additives evaluated.

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius (1): Volume one A - General Requirements, Volume one B - General Requirements  (Food Hygiene), Volume two A - Pesticide Residues in foods (General texts) Volume two B - Pesticide Residues in Foods (Maximal Residue Limits)

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius (2): Volume three - Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods, Volume four - Foods for special dietary uses Volume five A - Processed and Quick- Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius (3): Volume five B - Fresh fruits and vegetables, Volume six – Fruit Juices, Volume seven - Cereals, Pulses and Vegetable Proteins Volume eight - Fats and Oils and Related Products

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius (4): Volume nine - Fish and Fishery products, Volume ten – Meat and Meat Products; Soups and Broths, Volume eleven - Sugars, Cocoa Products and Chocolate and Miscellaneous Products,

Structure and contents of Codex Alimentarius (5): Volume twelve - Milk and Milk Products Volume thirteen - Methods of Analysis and Sampling Volume fourteen - Acceptances        

Transparency of Codex Alimentarius: Information for all the standards, regulations, guides and other recommendations are available on the web page http://www.codexalimentarius.net/ The published volumes of Codex Alimentarius are available in English, French and Spanish language. The information for all the standards, regulations, guides and other recommendations are also available on the web page (http://www.codexalimentarius.net), as well as on CD-ROM. All information about all relevant meetings, as well as other important events connected to the work of Codex Alimentarius can be found on the web page.

National Codex Contact Points function: Relation between the Secretariat and the member countries, Coordination of all relevant Codex activities in their own country, Acceptance of all final Codex – texts (standards, guidelines, advisory texts) In order to facilitate regular contact between the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the member countries, the National Codex Contact Point have been established. The appointment of the National Codex Contact Point is done by the governments of those countries, which decided to establish such bodies on their territory. The transcript provides the basic data for the nominated Codex Contact Point, and after that the work of this body starts on a regular basis.