ALINORM 03/26/1 - codex - BSN

6 REP12/CAC
INTRODUCTION
1. The Codex Alimentarius Commission held its Thirty-fifth Session in Rome, Italy from 2 to 7 July
2012. Mr Sanjay Dave (India), Chairperson of the Commission presided over the Session, assisted by the
Vice-Chairpersons, Dr Samuel Godefroy (Canada), Mrs Awilo Ochieng Pernet (Switzerland), and Professor
Samuel Sefa-Dedeh (Ghana). The Session was attended by 623delegates from 147 Member countries and 1
Member Organization, 37 international governmental and non-governmental organizations, including UN
agencies. A list of participants, including the Secretariat, is given in Appendix I to this report.
2. The session was opened by Mr José Graziano da Silva, Director-General FAO, who welcomed the
Commission to Rome. He said that the objectives of the Commission to protect the health of consumers and
ensure fair practices in the food trade where more relevant today than ever. He explained the FAO strategic
thinking process that he had started to define the future strategic direction of FAO based on five strategic
objectives dealing with eradicating hunger, increasing food production sustainably, improving livelihoods of
rural populations, enabling inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems locally to internationally,
and increasing the resilience of rural livelihoods to crises. He said that Codex contributed importantly to
these objectives because eradicating hunger was impossible without having safe and nutritious food. Food
safety crises could cause unnecessary hardships and changes in production had important implications for
food safety and quality. The role of Codex had become even more significant since it had been referenced in
the WTO SPS agreement.
3. The Director-General praised the inclusiveness, universality and transparency of the Commission seen
at the level of participation of civil society that had inspired other FAO fora. He also welcomed the
increasing level of participation of developing countries, in many cases assisted by the Codex Trust Fund
which had been so successful that now in some cases previous beneficiaries had become contributors. He
stressed the importance of ensuring that this participation was sustainable and further improved, noting that
the life span of the Trust Fund ended in 2015. He also stressed the need to ensure funding for independent
scientific advice to Codex and to the Codex Secretariat. He noted that in a large membership finding a
consensus could be difficult and urged the Commission to address the underlying issues of disagreements
while keeping in mind the objectives of the Commission. In light of the proliferation of private standards he
proposed to use the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of the Commission in 2013 to promote Codex as the
only acceptable forum of international food safety standards. He assured delegates of the continuing
commitment of FAO to provide Codex with the required resources.
4. Dr Angelika Tritscher, Acting Director, Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses, WHO, welcomed
the Commission on behalf of WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. She said that in light of challenges
such as globalization, urbanization, climate change and changing food production systems, the work of the
CAC was becoming ever more important to contribute to a decreased global health burden and to increased
global health security. She mentioned that the UN conference on sustainable development, Rio +20 had
expressed deep concern, about the level of extreme poverty and undernourishment in the world and the
omnipresent health threats such as epidemics or pandemics. She said that recent food related outbreaks had
contributed to such threats. She informed the Commission that the WHO reform process driven by WHO
Member States had resulted in concentrating on 5 technical categories: communicable diseases; noncommunicable
diseases; health through the life course; health systems; and the preparedness-surveillanceresponse
area, which included the important aspect of prevention under which the work of this Commission
fell.
5. Dr Tritscher said further that the Rio+20 declaration had stressed the need for a sound evidence base
for decision-making., In line with this thinking, WHO had implemented in a rigorous process for systematic
reviews to assure a consistent and sound scientific basis for its work, which was also relevant for the
scientific advice provided by FAO and WHO as the basis for Codex food standards. She praised Codex as a
model of effective collaboration in the UN system and said that WHO and FAO were working together to
ensure the widest and most effective participation possible in Codex through the Codex Trust Fund and
thanked those countries who had contributed to the trust fund. She concluded by saying that Rio+20
participants had reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing food security and access to adequate, safe and
nutritious food for present and future generations, which showed the important link between food safety and
food security, and to nutrition. She assured the Commission of the full commitment of WHO to the work of
Codex and Codex-related matters which are an important contribution to achieve these goals and thereby
improving global public health.