A Codex committee has made progress on guidelines for preventing and controlling food fraud. The draft guidance has been sent to the Codex Alimentarius Commission for adoption, which will meet in Switzerland in November. The United States chaired the electronic working group.
It will also lead a group dealing with outstanding issues and comments, especially as some concerns were expressed about a lack of clarity on the scope of the guidelines . Australia hosted the latest session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) in Cairns, Queensland, earlier this month. Food safety regulators from 60 countries and international organizations met to discuss food standards.
CCFICS is a committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the food standards-setting body of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Potential new work Progress was made regarding guidance on the equivalence of food controls and traceability within national food control systems. Four new work proposals have also been proposed.
These include guidance on appeals mechanisms due to the rejection of imported food, harmonizing the use of food establishment listing for market access, guidelines for the presentation of sanitary attestations on export certificates to better enable the transition to paperless trade, and principles to guide the digitalization of national food control systems. These must be approv.
