Food Law News - FAO / WHO / WTO / Codex - 2017

Codex News Item, 16 July 2017

CODEX - 40th Codex Alimentarius Commission begins in Geneva Monday 17th July

More than 600 delegates from over 120 countries will gather in Geneva this week to take important decisions on international food safety standards. Over 50 standards will be examined together with more than 30 proposals for development of new work or revisions of current Codex texts.

Highlights

Highlights of the meeting include decisions on:

• Guidelines on nutrition labelling (nutrition information on food packaging for consumers)
• Code of hygienic practice for fresh fruits and vegetables
• Maximum residue limits for more than 20 pesticides in various foods
• Maximum levels of certain food additives
• Maximum level of lead in processed fruits and vegetables
• Maximum residue limits in meat for veterinary drugs (ivermectin, lasalocid sodium and teflubenzuron)
• Code of practice for the prevention and reduction of arsenic contamination in rice
• Standards for cumin, thyme, & black, white, green pepper

New work

Some of the new work proposals include the Codex task force on antimicrobial resistance; establishing maximum levels of mercury in fish; guidelines for risk analysis of chemicals inadvertently present in food at low levels, and a new code of practice for reduction of chemical contaminants in refined oils and products made with refined oils such as palm oil.

The meeting runs from Monday to Saturday and there will also be a range of side events for delegates on topics including whole genome sequencing and standards for alcoholic beverages.

Links

• Visit the CAC40 meeting page here: http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/meetings-reports/detail/en/?meeting=CAC&session=40
• Watch the entire week in live streaming in 6 languages: http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/meetings-reports/CAC40/webcast/en/