An international food standards organisation has agreed to an Australian proposal aimed at ensuring that foods and food production systems meet requirements to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.

The proposed principles and guidelines put forward by Australia are intended to support the development and operation of national food control systems within the member countries of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, better known as Codex.

The proposal was agreed to at a meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems which took place in the Philippines in November 2008.

Broad representation

Australia and the Philippines Bureau of Agriculture Standards co-hosted the committee meeting, which was attended by 160 delegates from 59 countries. The broad representation of delegates helped to ensure the international standards being considered took into account the needs of developed and developing countries involved in the food production and processing sector.

In addition to considering Australia's proposal, the Codex committee:

• completed a generic model health certificate which will assist with the harmonisation of certificates used in the international trade of food
• developed principles and guidelines for auditing exporting countries' food inspection and certification systems to give importing countries confidence in the safety of imported food.  

Important standards previously developed by this committee include:

• guidelines for food import control systems (including risk based inspection of imported food)
• design, operation, assessment and verification of food import and export inspection and certification systems
• principles for the application of traceability/product tracing
• guidelines for the developing equivalence agreements
• guidelines on the judgement of equivalence of sanitary measures associated with food inspection and certification systems
• principles and guidelines for the exchange of information in food safety emergency situations
• guidelines for the exchange of information between countries on rejections of imported food
• guidelines for the design, production and use of generic official certificates including electronic certification when dealing with fraudulent certificates or product in international trade.   

About Codex

The Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems is one of 10 Codex committees and three taskforces that develop general standards and guidelines for a range of industries. Codex is the international food standards setting body recognised by the World Trade Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) as being the reference point for food standards applied in international trade.

More information on Australia's participation in the Codex Alimentarius and its subsidiary bodies is available from Codex Australia or by email.