The issue of March 6, 2002 deals with ‘The role of Codex in consumer protection.’ It is as shown below:
“Since its inception, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, together with its subsidiary committees, has given top priority to the protection and interests of consumers in the formulation of food standards and related activities. The adopted format for standards reflects the emphasis that codex places on ensuring consumers receive products that conform to basic quality requirements, are safe and do not present a health hazard.
“Format provisions for commodity standards, including the name of the standard, its scope, descriptions, weights, and measures and labelling, are intended to ensure that the consumer is not misled and to induce confidence that the food item purchased is what the label says it is.
“The provisions covering essential composition and quality factors ensure that the consumer will not receive a product below the minimum acceptable standard.
The provisions concerning food additives and contaminants and food hygiene are aimed at protecting the health of consumers.
“The Codex Alimentarius contains more than 200 standards in the prescribed format for individual foods or groups of foods. In addition, it includes the General Standard for the labelling of Prepackaged Foods, the Codex General Guidelines on Claims and the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling, all of which are aimed at ensuring honest practices in the sale of food while also providing guidance to consumers in their choice of products.
“Other general standards for Food Hygiene, Food Additives, Contaminants, and Toxins in Food and for Irradiated Foods are of prominent importance in protecting consumers’ health, and they are valued widely for this purpose.
“Codex and the ethics of international trade
“The work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission goes beyond creating means of removing barriers to trade. It also includes encouraging food traders to adopt voluntarily, ethical practices as an important way of protecting consumers’ health and promoting fair practices in the food trade. To this end, the Commission has published the Code of Ethics for International Trade in Food, which is included in the Codex Alimentarius.
“A principal objective of the Code of Ethics is to stop exporting countries and exporters from dumping poor quality of unsafe food onto international markets. The Code is currently being updated to reflect the impact of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and other agreements on international trade.”
Activities of the Codex Secretariat
The Codes Secretariat dispatched:
1. A cabinet memorandum requesting institutional strengthening and capacity building to effectively execute the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) co-ordinated by the joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme to the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.
2. Letters to the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Health, Food and Drugs Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Veterinary Public Health Unit, Guyana Consumers Association, National Agricultural Research Institute, Guyana School of Agriculture, Ministry of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock and Regional Programme for Animal Health Assistants, sensitizing them on the role of Codex and requesting their participation in Codex activities.
3. Four Draft Codex Standards were issued for public comments. There were:
i. Code of Practice on good animal feeding.
ii. Guidelines for the quality control of fresh fruits and vegetables.
iii. Standard for fruit juices and nectars.
iv. Standard for vegetable juices.
4. Thirty-six codex documents to the Food and Drugs Department and the Ministry of Agriculture for information purposes.
