Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A L I M E N T A R I U S
Third edition
UNDERSTANDING
THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
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UNDERSTANDING
THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS
Third edition
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Produced by the
Codex Secretariat
FAO
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this information
product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations or of the World Health Organization
concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its
authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
ISBN 978-92-5-105614-1
All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information
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FAO/WHO 2006
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Contents
PREFACE
10
13
21
25
29
33
37
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Preface
The Codex Alimentarius, or the food code, has become the global reference
point for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control
agencies and the international food trade. The code has had an enormous
impact on the thinking of food producers and processors as well as on the
awareness of the end users the consumers. Its influence extends to every
continent, and its contribution to the protection of public health and fair
practices in the food trade is immeasurable.
The Codex Alimentarius system presents a unique opportunity for
all countries to join the international community in formulating and
harmonizing food standards and ensuring their global implementation. It
also allows them a role in the development of codes governing hygienic
processing practices and recommendations relating to compliance with those
standards.
The significance of the food code for consumer health protection was
underscored in 1985 by the United Nations Resolution 39/248, whereby
guidelines were adopted for use in the elaboration and reinforcement of
consumer protection policies. The guidelines advise that When formulating
national policies and plans with regard to food, Governments should take
into account the need of all consumers for food security and should support
and, as far as possible, adopt standards from the Codex Alimentarius or,
in their absence, other generally accepted international food standards.
The Codex Alimentarius has relevance to the international food trade. With
respect to the ever-increasing global market, in particular, the advantages of
having universally uniform food standards for the protection of consumers
are self-evident. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Agreement on the
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement)
and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) both
encourage the international harmonization of food standards. Products of
the Uruguay Round of multinational trade negotiations, these Agreements
cite international standards, guidelines and recommendations as the
preferred measures for facilitating international trade in food. As such,
Codex standards have become the benchmarks against which national food
measures and regulations are evaluated within the legal parameters of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements.
This booklet was first published in 1999 to foster a wider understanding
of the evolving food code and of the activities carried out by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission the body responsible for compiling the
standards, codes of practice, guidelines and recommendations that constitute
the Codex Alimentarius. Since the first publication there have been many
changes to the way in which the Codex works. A new edition of this popular
booklet is therefore timely and necessary for understanding the Codex
Alimentarius in the twenty-first century.
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A single international
reference point
The best traditions of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) and the World Health
Organization (WHO) have encouraged
food-related scientific and technological
research as well as discussion. In doing so,
they have lifted the world communitys
awareness of food safety and related
issues to unprecedented heights. The
Codex Alimentarius Commission,
established by the two Organizations in
the 1960s, has become the single most
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1996
FAO World Food Summit
Committed itself to:
Implement policies aimed at ... improving physical
and economic access by all, at all times, to sufficient,
nutritionally adequate and safe food and its effective
utilization.
and to:
Apply measures, in conformity with the Agreement
on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures and other relevant international agreements,
that ensure the quality and safety of food supply ... .
2000
Fifty-Third World Health Assembly
Recognized:
The importance of the standards, guidelines and
other recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius
Commission for protecting the health of consumers
and assuring fair trading practices ...
and urged Member States to:
Participate actively in activities in the emerging area
of food safety risk analysis.
2002
World Food Summit: five years later
Stated:
We reaffirm the important role of Codex Alimentarius
to provide effective, science-based, internationally
accepted standards of food safety as well as to
facilitate international food and agricultural trade.
2004
Second FAO/WHO Global Forum of Food Safety
Regulators
Affirmed:
The Codex system provides an important opportunity
for countries to work together to develop international
standards in a representative manner. Developing
countries would benefit from greater use of basic
Codex texts when building their food control systems.
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Ancient times
Evidence from the earliest historical
writings indicates that governing
authorities were already then concerned
with codifying rules to protect consumers
from dishonest practices in the sale of
food. Assyrian tablets described the
method to be used in determining the
correct weights and measures for food
grains, and Egyptian scrolls prescribed the
labelling to be applied to certain foods.
In ancient Athens, beer and wines were
inspected for purity and soundness, and
the Romans had a well-organized state
food control system to protect consumers
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A scientific base
International developments
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire
between 1897 and 1911, a collection of
standards and product descriptions for
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Trade concerns
The different sets of standards arising
from the spontaneous and independent
development of food laws and standards
by different countries inevitably gave rise
to trade barriers that were of increasing
concern to food traders in the early
twentieth century. Trade associations that
were formed as a reaction to such barriers
pressured governments to harmonize their
various food standards so as to facilitate
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Consumers concerns
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Integrating non-governmental
activities
While FAO and WHO furthered their
involvement in food-related matters,
a variety of committees set up by
international NGOs also began working
in earnest on standards for food
commodities. In time, the work of those
NGO committees was either assumed by,
or continued jointly with, the appropriate
Codex Alimentarius Commodity
Committees and, in some cases, the nongovernmental committees themselves
became Codex committees.
International consultation
and cooperation
Two landmark years in the foundation
of the Codex Alimentarius were 1960
and 1961. In October 1960, the first
FAO Regional Conference for Europe
crystallized a widely held view when it
recognized:
[t]he desirability of international agreement
on minimum food standards and related
questions (including labelling requirements,
methods of analysis, etc.) ... as an important
means of protecting the consumers health,
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Commodity standards
By far the largest number of specific
standards in the Codex Alimentarius is
the group called commodity standards.
The major commodities included in the
Codex are:
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The Commission
The Eleventh Session of the FAO
Conference in 1961 and the Sixteenth
World Health Assembly in 1963 both
passed resolutions to establish the Codex
Alimentarius Commission. The two
bodies also adopted the Statutes and Rules
of Procedure for the Commission.
The Statutes provide the legal basis for
the Commissions work and formally
reflect the concepts behind and reasons
for its establishment. Article 1 of the
Statutes provides the Commission with
its purposes, terms of reference and
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Statutes of the
Codex Alimentarius Commission
ARTICLE 1
The Codex Alimentarius Commission shall ... be
responsible for making proposals to, and shall
be consulted by, the Directors-General of the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
the World Health Organization (WHO) on all
matters pertaining to the implementation of the
Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme,
the purpose of which is:
(a) protecting the health of consumers and
ensuring fair practices in the food trade;
(b) promoting coordination of all food
standards work undertaken by international
governmental and non-governmental
organizations;
(c) determining priorities and initiating and
guiding the preparation of draft standards
through and with the aid of appropriate
organizations;
(d) finalizing standards elaborated under (c)
above and, after acceptance by governments,
publishing them in a Codex Alimentarius
either as regional or worldwide standards,
together with international standards
already finalized by other bodies under (b)
above, wherever this is practicable;
(e) amending published standards, after
appropriate survey in the light of
developments.
The purposes or objectives embraced by
Article 1 resulted from a long process of
fashioning and refining. Based on a deep insight
into and understanding of events that led to the
Commissions establishment, they encapsulate
the intentions of the Commissions founders.
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Subsidiary bodies
Under its Rules of Procedure, the
Commission is empowered to establish
two kinds of subsidiary body:
Codex Committees, which prepare
draft standards for submission to the
Commission;
Coordinating Committees, through
which regions or groups of countries
coordinate food standards activities in
the region, including the development
of regional standards.
A feature of the committee system is
that, with few exceptions, each committee
is hosted by a member country, which
is chiefly responsible for the cost of
CRITICAL REVIEW
Initial proposal
ELABORATION
Mid-term review
Discussion paper
governments and
Proceed?
YES
NO
Project proposal
Revised
or
abandoned
COMMITTEE LEVEL
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Endorsement*
Optional
Consultation with
Final standard,
guideline, etc.
COMMITTEES
AND TASK FORCES
COMMISSION
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Task Forces:
Task Force on Animal Feeding,
19992004
Task Force on Foods Derived from
Biotechnology, 19992003 and 2005
2009
Task Force on Fruit and Vegetable
Juices, 19992005
Task Force on the Handling and
Processing of Quick Frozen Foods,
2006 Task Force on Antimicrobial
Resistance, 2006Coordinating Committees
Coordinating Committees play an
invaluable role in ensuring that the
work of the Commission is responsive
to regional interests and to the concerns
of developing countries. They normally
meet at two-year intervals, with a good
representation from the countries of
their respective regions. Meeting reports
are submitted to and discussed by the
Commission. The country that chairs
the Coordinating Committee is also the
Regional Coordinator for the region
concerned.
These Committees have no standing
host countries. Meetings are hosted by
countries of a region on an ad hoc basis
and in agreement with the Commission.
There are six Coordinating Committees,
one each for the following regions:
Africa
Asia
Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Near East
North America and the Southwest
Pacific
Codex administration
The Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius
Commission is appointed jointly by the
Directors-General of FAO and WHO
following an open worldwide search for
qualified candidates. The Secretary is
supported by a small staff of professional
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Expert committees
and consultations
The Codex Alimentarius has stimulated
activity in the fields of food chemistry,
food technology, food microbiology,
mycology, and pesticide and veterinary
drug residues. Much work is carried
out in the form of collaborative studies
among individual scientists, laboratories,
institutes and universities and joint
FAO/WHO expert committees and
consultations.
FAO and WHO expert meetings are
independent of the Commission (and
the Commissions subsidiary bodies),
although their output contributes
significantly to the scientific credibility of
the Commissions work. The principle of
ensuring the independence of scientific
advice from practical realities of risk
management has been followed by Codex
from the earliest days.
The main principles of developing
scientific advice are:
Excellence: use of internationally
recognized expertise, supported by
the creation of a platform for global
scientific discussions based on best
practices in elaborating guidance;
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Consumers participation
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Information
The Codex Alimentarius Secretariat
disseminates Codex documents to
international consumers organizations
and provides information on request.
It also distributes all Commission
documents and those of its subsidiary
committees to Codex Contact Points in
member countries. This is done in the
expectation that they will be forwarded to
nationally based consumers organizations
for comment as required. All of these
documents are publicly available on the
Codex Web site.
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Codex and
other trade agreements
The Uruguay Round Agreements allow
groups of member countries to enter into
trade agreements among themselves for
the purpose of liberalizing trade. The
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and
the United States of America is such an
agreement. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
and Uruguay have signed the Treaty
of Asuncin, establishing the Southern
Common Market (MERCOSUR). In Asia
and the Pacific, economic cooperation
arrangements have been formalized
under Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC). All three regional groupings
have adopted measures consistent with
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Codex is quoted in
trade agreements
Codex and its work have been quoted in many
bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements,
including:
MexicoBolivia, 1995
Baltic Area Free Trade Agreement, 1996
ChileMexico, 1997
BulgariaTurkey, 1998
Central AmericaChile, 1999
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), 2000
TurkeyBosnia and Herzegovina, 2002
AustraliaThailand, 2005
United States of AmericaAustralia, 2005
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Technical assistance
Assistance given to developing countries
has included:
establishing and strengthening
national food control systems,
including the formulation and
revision of food legislation (acts and
regulations) and food standards in
accordance with Codex standards;
helping with the establishment
and strengthening of food control
agencies, as well as with training
in the necessary technical and
administrative skills to ensure their
effective operation;
strengthening laboratory analysis and
food inspection capabilities;
conducting workshops and training
courses, not only for transferring
information, knowledge and skills
associated with food control, but also
to increase awareness of the Codex
Alimentarius and activities carried
out by the Commission;
providing training in all aspects
of food control associated with
protecting the health of consumers
and ensuring honest practices in the
sale of food;
extending guidance on matters
directly related to Codex activities,
such as safety assessment of food
produced using biotechnology;
developing and publishing manuals
and texts that are associated with
food quality control and that
provide recommendations for the
development and operation of food
quality and safety systems;
developing and publishing training
manuals on food inspection and
quality and safety assurance,
particularly with respect to the
application of the HACCP system in
the food-processing industry.
Standards and Trade
Development Facility
Based at the headquarters of WTO, the
Standards and Trade Development Facility
is a global programme for capacitybuilding and technical assistance in
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Sharing information
Access to information about food
standards and food regulatory
requirements is critical in todays world.
Governments and traders need to know
the requirements of their trading partners;
consumers and the media have the right
to have access to a safety assessment of
potential hazards in the food supply; and
everyone needs to know how to respond
correctly in an emergency situation when
something in the system goes wrong.
Fortunately, the Internet allows rapid
access to all types of information about
regulatory matters concerning food.
However, sometimes the information
available is excessive, inconsistent or
of doubtful quality. The international
organizations associated with Codex
have therefore combined their efforts
to provide easy access to authoritative
information on food standards and
related matters.
International Portal on Food Safety,
Animal and Plant Health
International information in the Portal
has been included through collaboration
with OIE, WHO, WTO and the Secretariat
of the UN Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), as well as the Secretariats
of the International Plant Protection
Convention (IPPC) and the Codex
Alimentarius Commission. The system
integrates content from FAOs database of
national legislation, FAOLEX.
Access is also available through the
Portal to the databases of the United States
Department of Agriculture, the United
States Food and Drug Administration,
the Health and Consumer Protection
Directorate-General of the European
Commission and the regulations of several
other countries. The list of contributors
continues to grow.
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Abbreviations
APEC
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
MERCOSUR
Southern Common Market
ASEAN
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
MRL
maximum residue limit
CBD
Convention on Biological Diversity
NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement
DNA
deoxyribonucleic acid
NGO
non-governmental organization
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations
OECD
Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development
GATT
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
OIE
World Organisation for Animal Health
HACCP
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Point
SPS Agreement
Agreement on the Application of Sanitary
and Phytosanitary Measures
IAEA
International Atomic Energy Agency
TBT Agreement
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
INFOSAN
International Food Safety Authorities
Network
UN
United Nations
IPPC
International Plant Protection Convention
JECFA
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on
Food Additives
JEMRA
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on
Microbiological Risk Assessment
39
UNECE
United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe
WHO
World Health Organization
WTO
World Trade Organization
JMPR
Joint FAO/WHO Meetings on Pesticide
Residues
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www.codexalimentarius.net
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of international food standards that have been adopted by
the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Codex standards cover all the main foods, whether
processed, semi-processed or raw. In addition, materials used in the further processing of food
products are included to the extent necessary for achieving the principal objectives of the code
protecting the health of consumers and facilitating fair practices in the food trade.
Codex provisions concern the hygienic and nutritional quality of food, including microbiological
norms, food additives, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, contaminants, labelling and
presentation, and methods of sampling and risk analysis.
As well as individual standards, advisory codes of practice, guidelines and other recommended
measures form an important part of the overall food code.
The Codex Alimentarius can safely claim to be the most important international reference point
in matters concerning food quality. Its creation, moreover, has generated food-related scientific
research and greatly increased the world community's awareness of the vital issues at stake
food quality, safety and public health.
ISBN 978-92-5-105614-1
789251 056141
TC/M/A0850E/1/11.06/5100
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