The Codex Alimentarius is the international organization created by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards, guidelines and other texts under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in food trade. As a nongovernmental organization with observer status IFT participates in meetings of select Codex committees and task forces.
Codex Meeting Reports
With the mandate of raising levels of nutrition, improving agricultural productivity, bettering the lives of rural populations, and contributing to the growth of the world economy, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nation serves as a knowledge network, shares policy expertise, provides a neutral meeting forum for nations, and brings technical knowledge to the field.
FAO Resources
As the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations, the World Health Organization provides leadership on global health matters, shapes the health research agenda, sets norms and standards, articulates evidence-based policy options, provides technical support to countries, and monitors and assesses health trends.
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Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is an international expert scientific committee administered jointly by FAO and WHO. JECFA serves as an independent scientific committee which performs risk assessments on food additives, contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants and residues of veterinary drugs in food and provides advice for the CAC and its committees.
JECFA Meeting Report
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is a scientific risk assessment body of the European Union, providing scientific advice on food and feed safety, nutrition, animal health, plant protection, and plant health. Select reports are provided below.
Editorials
Guidance Documents
News Stories
Scientific Opinions
Scientific Reports
Statements
Technical Reports
The Food Chemicals Codex (FFC) is a compendium of internationally recognized standards for the authenticity, purity and identity of food ingredients. The compendium features about 1,100 monographs, including food-grade chemicals, processing aids, foods, flavoring agents, vitamins, and functional food ingredients, as well as information on topics such as adulteration, analytical methods and more.
The FCC plays a key role in safeguarding commerce and public health by providing essential criteria and analytical methods to authenticate and determine the quality of food ingredients. FCC standards are beneficial to all stakeholders in the food industry as agreed standards between suppliers and manufacturers aid in distinguishing genuine products from inferior or adulterated ingredients and substances, thereby helping to make the food supply chain safer and assuring consumers of the quality of the food products they consume.
FCC Resources
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops and publishes international standards relating to topics, including food ingredients, food safety and quality, and nanotechnology, through a network of national member standards institutes of 162 countries.
ISO Resources:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) is an international organization that works to build better policies for better lives. Its goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity, and well-being for all. Together with governments, policy makers, and citizens, the OECD works on establishing international norms.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CIFA) highest priority is mitigating risks to food safety, with the health and safety of Canadians the driving force behind the design and development of its programs. In collaboration and partnership with industry, consumers, and federal, provincial, and municipal organizations, CFIA works towards protecting Canadians from preventable health risks related to food and zoonotic diseases.
Resources
The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is a statutory authority in the Australian Government Health Portfolio. FSANZ develops food standards for Australia and New Zealand.
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Health Canada is responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health, ensuring that high-quality health services are accessible, and working to reduce health risks.
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The U.K. Food Standards Agency is an independent government department working across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to protect public health and consumers’ wider interests in food.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released the summary report of its sampling of cucumbers, which was conducted as part of an ongoing effort to help ensure food safety and prevent contaminated products from reaching consumers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be continuing its enforcement discretion policy for compliance with certain FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) supply chain program requirements applicable to receiving facilities that are co-manufacturers.
Mooala, a maker of premium, organic, dairy-free beverages and creamers, has completed a $8.3 million series A equity financing.
Kemin Industries, a global ingredient manufacturer, has opened an innovation and technology center at its regional headquarters in Zhuhai, China.
The Golden Rice humanitarian project has been recognized in the top 10 biotech projects, as one of the most influential projects of the past 50 years by Project Management Institute (PMI) in its 2019 Most Influential Projects list.
Bears Nutrition and its milk-based nutritional shakes for children were named the grand prize winner of the inaugural Real California Milk Accelerator dairy startup competition.
Researchers at Corteva Agriscience have demonstrated that increasing and extending the expression of a maize gene, zmm28, alters vegetative and reproductive growth parameters and significantly enhances yield in large-scale field trials conducted over multiple years.
Research by scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine suggests that diet has the potential to affect the gut microbiome in ways that could decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
While deciphering the genome of the Chardonnay grape, researchers at the University of California uncovered something fascinating: grapes inherit different numbers of genes from their mothers and fathers.
