§11.1 History

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Publication year: 2022

§11.1 History

The Codex Alimentarius was created in 1962 through two United Nations (U.N.) organizations, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).¹ Under the guidelines for the Commission, the Codex publication was intended to adopt international food standards and present them in a unified form.² Its stated purpose was,

". . . protecting consumers' health and ensuring fair practices in the food trade."³

Articles to be included eventually within Codex were processed, semi-processed, or raw foods to be sold directly to consumers, and food for manufacturing purposes.⁴ Particular interest was given to food additives and contaminants because they apparently affect ". . . all processed [and] raw foods."⁵

The Commission also reiterated a general principle in food regulation that standards are used to ensure that consumers know what they are purchasing as opposed to controlling what the consumer may and may not purchase.⁶

Regarding food standards, the Commission had as its original goal the establishment of two levels of standards: the minimum "platform" standard, and the higher, or trading, standard. The minimum standard was set to ensure that signatory governments would not fall below the standard set by Codex. The higher standard was stated to be voluntary, allowing governments to set levels for imports into their country.⁷ "Higher" was used to refer to the hygiene or purity of a product.⁸

The Commission determined that the Codex should be broken down into Section I, General Information (definitions, labeling, samples, positive list of additives, etc.); Section II, individual products, including the requirements for each product; and Section III, Method of Analysis, focused on reference methods only.⁹ In developing the Codex, the Commission intended that ad hoc committees and outside bodies perform the preparatory work.¹⁰ The ad hoc groups and bodies should use information already developed in other organizations to develop Codex.¹¹ Draft documents that were to be completed by the groups were then to be submitted to governments for consideration.¹² Divergent views on food standards were allowed under Codex, and all views could be proposed as each view was targeted to a specific geographic area.¹³ Upon acceptance by the governments, the standards are to be published in the Codex along with a list of accepting countries.¹⁴ The published standards may be subject to review and revision when needed.¹⁵

Regarding...