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Codex Alimentarius and Australia

The Codex Alimentarius,usually referred to simply as Codex,is a joint initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Codex was established in 1962 to protect consumer health and ensure fair practices in world food trade.Australia has been an impor tant contributor to Codex since its inception because food is one of our most important expor ts and we export more than half of all the food we produce. Codex Food Standards, Guidelines and Codes of Practice are a reference point for international food trade.The standards are now linked to World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and may be used as benchmarks in WTO dispute settlement procedures.

The contact point in Australia, Codex Australia, is situated within the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Codex Australia has distributed as widely as possible a brief publication titled Lifting the lid on world food standards,What the Australian food industry needs to know about Codex. This leaflet summarises the Codex process and its relevance to the Australian food industry. It also explains how to subscribe to receive specific Codex papers under consideration and a quarterly e-bulletin - Setting the Standard - which summarises up- to-date happenings in Codex. The leaflet and subscription information are available on the Codex Australia web site.

Committee system

There are nine Codex committees and one task force that develop general standards which may be applied across the food industry. These include such important areas as food hygiene, additives and contaminants, pesticide residues and food labelling. Eleven separate committees and one task force develop specific standards related to food commodities, e.g.fish and fishery products, milk and milk products.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the governing body which oversees the committee system, chooses proposals for new international standards using a set of established criteria. All new proposals then go through an eight-step development process (see figure) before a new standard can be adopted by a full meeting of the Commission. This process can take many years to finalise.

Codex Australia coordinates Australia's position on draft Codex standards and seeks input from any interested parties in developing this position. It does this by a number of consultative mechanisms including the National Codex Committee and Codex Advisory Panels.

Codex Australia stakeholder forum

Because of the limitations of these mechanisms and the growing need for Codex Australia to focus on those Codex activities of greatest importance to Australia, the National Codex Committee resolved in 2003 that the main forum for national consultation on broad Codex policy issues should be an annual stakeholder forum.

The first of these annual forums was held in Sydney in September of this year, attended by approximately 100 representatives of Commonwealth and State governments and industry.

Stakeholder forum outcomes

The forum was addressed by speakers from government and industry. Government speakers gave an outline of the consultative processes historically in place and clarified the relationship between domestic and international standards. They also discussed initiatives being under taken to improve understanding of and participation by the processed food industry in Codex. This is now particularly important because of the increasing reference to Codex standards in WTO deliberations.

Speakers representing industry organisations which are currently actively involved in the development of Australian positions on key Codex standards, highlighted the reasons for their participation in the Codex process. This included the need for industry sectors to speak with one voice, the benefits of international harmonisation in such important areas as maximum residue limits, approaches to and requirements for food safety management, and to ensure that the Australian government is provided with accurate advice on what is achievable by industry in a commercial environment.

All speakers stressed the need for Codex to maintain a science based decision-making process and this had to be supported by relevant data being fed into the system.

Future

Following the discussion period, there was general agreement amongst participants that the forum had been useful and similar future meetings could aid the consultation process. The outcome of the forum is on the agenda of the October meeting of the Australian Government Codex Policy Committee with a possible forum in 2005 to focus more on the work of particular Codex committees.