The Hindu Business Line : UN food safety body to study 3 proposals from India

The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, an arm of the UN body Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is mandated to establish standards for all food categories globally, has said that three proposals from India will be tabled for adoption at the next annual meeting in Geneva.

A group of Indian industrialists dealing in food and food processing met Ms Karen Hulebak, Vice-Chairperson, Codex Alimentarius Commission, and Chairperson, Codex Committee on Food Hygiene, to discuss issues related to food safety hygiene, at a meeting called by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The proposals

The three proposals to be sent for approval of the Commission are on validation, risk matrix and on powder formula for infants and young children.

The first proposal on validation is on how to ensure control measures in a food safety system, so that the mechanism of establishing standards set forth works the way it is supposed to.

Second, the proposal on risk matrix is to create new approaches to developing control measures for different levels of the entire risk assessment system.

Finally, the proposal on powdered formulations for infants and children is with regard to microbial food safety issues.

Major concern

All these decisions come at a time when food safety is a major cause for concern within the country, given the boom in the processed food sphere in India.

Ms Hulebak said, “It is significant that India has hosted the Commission on Food Hygiene and the proposals that have been set forth are of equally significant value. In fact, the active participation of developing economies with regard to establishing food safety standards is welcomed by Codex as a significant step towards good health.”

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.

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 organisations.

More Stories on : Foods & Food Processing | Standards & Benchmarks

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page