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27th
July 2007
Codex adopts new food safety, quality
standards
The Codex Alimentarius Commission
(CAC) has adopted 44 new and amended
food standards and set up a
comprehensive set of risk analysis
principles to help governments establish
their own standards, especially for food
items that are not covered by Codex
standards.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Dr.
Claude J S Mosha said recently that the
standards were adopted during the
Commission’s 30th session
held at the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) Headquarters in Rome,
Italy, from 2-7 July, 2007.
Dr. Mosha, who is also Head of the
Agriculture and Food Section at the
Tanzania Bureau of Standards, said Codex
food safety standards are developed
using scientific advice from FAO and
World Health Organization (WHO) expert
committees that enables the rigorous
standard setting procedures within
Codex.
He said during the meeting, the
Commission also looked for methods to
prevent antimicrobial resistance in
bacteria in food. It also made a
decision on developing additional
guidelines to lower the frequency of
Salmonella and Campylobacter - the two
bacteria that cause a significant
proportion of food-borne diseases all
over the world - in chicken.
This year’s Codex session was attended
by 133 countries and Tanzania was
represented by Ambassador Wilfred Ngirwa
- Permanent Representative to FAO, Mr.
Linus Gedi - Food Technologist from SIDO,
Ms Perpetua Mary Hingi - Agricultural
Attaché to FAO and Mr. Amon Ruvurula -
Minister Counselor of Tanzania’s Embassy
in Italy.
During the meeting Dr. Mosha was
re-elected for unprecedented third term
by acclamation as the Chairperson of the
Commission. Three Vice-chairpersons were
elected during the session and are Dr.
Karen Hulebak (United States of
America), Ms Noraini Mohd Othman
(Malaysia) and Dr. Wim van Eck (The
Netherlands).
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a
joint commission of FAO and WHO
established in 1963 to develop food
standards, guidelines and related texts
such as codes of practice under the
Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.
Tanzania Bureau of Standards is the
National Codex Contact Point for
Tanzania.
The main purposes of this Programme are
protecting health of the consumers and
ensuring fair trade practices in the
food trade, and promoting coordination
of all food standards work undertaken by
international governmental and
non-governmental organizations.
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