Food Safety Standards

“Food safety encompasses actions aimed at ensuring that all food is as safe as possible. Food safety policies and actions need to cover the entire food chain, from production to consumption“. (WHO 2009)

 

Food safety relates to the extent of how safe food is for consumption, in other words the concept of safety describes an acceptable level of risk. Food safety thus involves the protection of public health from health risks, as posed by food borne illnesses. Each year millions of people get infected by food borne diseases. These are caused by:

• microbiological (e.g. salmonella, coli bacteria), 
• radiological (radioactivity) or 
• chemical (e.g. toxicants, dioxins, food additives) hazards, 
• zoonoses (animal diseases, e.g. BSE) or 
• allergens.

Another important concern in the food safety debate regards new technologies, especially genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which is an issue of disputes and discussions on the international agenda.

Food safety issues are therefore closely related to food quality as well as animal health and plant health (agricultural health).

Since the 1990s food safety has increasingly become important, as internationalization of trade, changes in consumption and eating patterns, in food production and distribution systems pose new challenges to the actors in the international agro-food chain and for the international policy agenda.

Food safety as defined by the WHO includes actions at all stages of the agro-food chain which ensure that the food we eat is safe, such as global (multilateral) standards, national and supranational regulations as well as private sector standard initiatives.

On the multilateral level, the joint WHO/FAO Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) was established in 1963 with the aim of protecting public health and fair practices in food trade. CAC develops food standards and promotes the coordination of standards implemented by international governmental and non-governmental organizations and is the relevant standard-setting organization for food safety issues under the SPS Agreement of the WTO. The CAC’s Codex Alimentarius encompasses a wide range of food safety measures: (1) Codex Standards on product characteristics, including maximum residue limits (MRLs) on pesticides, veterinary drugs, food additives and contaminants; (2) Codex codes of practice, including hygienic and technological codes which define the production, processing, manufacturing, transport and storage practices; and (3) Codex guidelines on essential nutrient addition to food, microbiological criteria, food import and export inspection and certification, risk analysis of foods derived from modern biotechnology and guidelines on food labeling (including health and nutrition claims).

Based on the Codex Alimentarius, national governments and supranational authorities establish their own mandatory regulations, for example including specifications on food supplements, flavorings, additives, MRLs und the use of GMOs.

Voluntary private standards on food safety include a wide range of production as well as processing standards, such as BRC, IFS, HACCP, SQF, GlobalGAP and ISO. Many of these standards are business-to-business (B2B) standards which are generally not visible for the consumer. Another private standard is GlobalGAP (formerly EurepGAP), a process standard focused on good agricultural practices. Further private standards include individual company standards on food safety.

 

References:

Codex Alimentarius Commission (2006). Understanding the Codex Alimentarius, 3rd ed. Rome: FAO/WHO.

GTZ (2007). Food Quality and Safety Standards as required by EU Law and the Private Industry: A Practitioners’ Reference Book, 2nd ed. Eschborn, Germany: GTZ.

Nadvi, K. & Wältring, F. (2004). Making sense of global standards. In H. Schmitz (Ed.), Local enterprises in the Global Economy: Issues of Governance and Upgrading (pp. 53-94). Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Siméon, M. (2006). Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and food safety: challenges and opportunities for developing countries. OIE Scientific and Technical Review, 25 (2), 701-712.

Trienekens, J. & Zuurbier, P. (2008). Quality and safety standards in the food industry, developments and challenges. International Journal of Production Economics, 113 (1), 107–122.

WHO (2002). WHO global strategy for food safety : safer food for better health. Geneva: Switzerland.

WHO (2009). Health topics: food safety. http://www.who.int/topics/food_safety/en/index.html

 

Further information:

• International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health (IPFSAPH)

International

Private Sector

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