Codex Alimentarius

The Codex Alimentarius (Latin for Food Code ) is a collection of standards for food safety and product quality, which was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization of the United Nations in 1963.

Survey

All EU Member States are members of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which maintains the Codex. Furthermore, the European Community in 2003 joined as a member of the Commission. Thus, the influence of the 28 Member States has risen sharply in this organization.

Addition method for ensuring food safety (eg the development of a HACCP system or conducting spot checks ) of the Codex Alimentarius including product-specific standards that meet requirements on manufacturing processes, identify microbiological risks and regulate the labeling of the product to inform the final consumer.

Content

Terms and Conditions

  • Food labeling (especially for organic and genetically modified foods )
  • Excipients
  • Limits for toxic substances and food supplements
  • Nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals, etc.)
  • Residues from agriculture and livestock
  • Methods for risk analysis of biotechnology products (plants, micro- organisms, allergens )
  • Food hygiene including HACCP
  • Methods of analysis and sampling
  • Feed additives and storage

Special regulations

  • Meat products
  • Fish and fishery products including water cultivation
  • Milk and milk products
  • Dietetic foods and baby food
  • Fresh and processed vegetables and fruits as well as fruit juices
  • Cereals and derived products, dried legumes
  • Fats, oils and derived products such as margarine
  • Miscellaneous food products (chocolate, sugar, honey, mineral water)

Acceptance and deviations from the standard

The Codex is considered worldwide as the de facto binding and is especially tried by FAO and WHO, as well as of many other places. It thus represents a largely secure collection of views and insights of the state of science is the associated Accordingly, it is an easy to follow for the vast majority of countries of the world with the provisions and stipulations contained therein, while quite sophisticated way to own it to gain different insights and to derive national regulations, rarely comes into play.

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