4.3 Codex Alimentarius and HACCP
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the World Health Organisation (WHO) established the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) in 1962. Codex objectives are to protect the health of consumers, and to set coherent internationally agreed standards relating to food safety. These apply especially to internationally traded foodstuffs. International market access agreements refer to Codex requirements as their underlying food safety requirement.
Codex published a set of food safety guidelines in 1996, which now form the basis for nearly all food safety programmes (FSP's), world-wide. These guidelines are known as Hazard Analysis, Critical Control Point (HACCP). HACCP is based on the PDCA cycle of all management standards:
- hazards to food safety are identified (these are usually of a microbiological, chemical or physical nature);
- points at which the hazards can be effectively controlled are identified, and control methods documented;
- the control plan is implemented, and outcomes monitored by verification audits which check compliance with documented procedures, and a testing programme which confirms control effectiveness;
- the overall effectiveness of the programme is reviewed, or validated.
Debate rages in the international community over the appropriateness of using HACCP approaches for management of non-food safety issues, and how HACCP principles should be integrated in an overall management system approach. The 1998 Codex meeting in Melbourne was not able to agree on the need for Codex to develop guidelines for the utilisation and promotion of the use of quality systems by food import and export inspection and certification systems. This is a reflection on the mix of approaches our trading partners have to inspection based regimes compared to use of management systems (HACCP).
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