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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations E Casadei and J Albert, Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Rome, Italy ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This article is reproduced from Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition, volume 4, pp. 2587–2592, ã 2003, Elsevier Ltd.
History and Purpose of the Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is an autonomous agency within the United Nations (UN) system. The organization had a membership of 180 countries in 2001. In 1943, world leaders met at Hot Springs, Virginia, the United States, and determined to lay a framework for peace through international cooperation in food and agriculture. The meeting, the UN Conference on Food and Agriculture, decided on the establishment of permanent organization in the field of food and agriculture and set up an interim commission to prepare a specific plan. This commission worked for 2 years and prepared the constitution of the FAO. The signing of the constitution and the opening of the first FAO Conference were arranged to take place in Quebec, Canada, on 16 October 1945. Representatives from 44 nations met at this date and established the FAO, the first of the UN agencies. As the commemorative tablet in Canada states, “Thus for the first time nations organized to raise levels of nutrition and to improve production and distribution of food and agricultural products.” The FAO’s goal is enshrined in its motto, “Fiat Panis – Let there be bread.” The FAO Conference is the governing body and is composed of all member nations. It meets every 2 years and is a major forum for the discussion of food and agriculture issues. It is able to take concerted action on issues of concern to its members. Recent initiatives include the adoption of the World Food Security Compact and the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticide. The FAO Conference elects a council to which a series of committees, such as the Committees on Commodity Problems, Fisheries, Agriculture, Forestry, and World Food Security, report. Many bodies have been set up by the FAO Conference and Council to foster cooperation in particular subject areas. In adopting the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources in 1983, for example, the FAO Conference provided for the establishment of the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources to guide the FAO on policy and to monitor the implementation of the undertaking. The Commission on African Animal Trypanosomiasis was established in 1979 to coordinate a large-scale FAO program to control the disease. Another example is the cooperation of the FAO with the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Joint FAO/ WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, which has issued some 200 international food standards. Along with these bodies, the FAO organizes conferences and meetings on particular issues. For example, the FAOserviced World Food Conference in 1974 resulted in a series of measures to promote world food security. In December 1992, the first International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) was held in the FAO’s headquarters in Rome. It was jointly sponsored by the FAO and the WHO. At this conference, the
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World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition were unanimously adopted, committing governments to prepare their National Plans of Action for Nutrition containing attainable goals and measurable targets based on the principles and relevant strategies agreed at the ICN. World leaders assembled in Rome in November 1996 for the World Food Summit aimed at renewing global commitment to the fight against hunger. The FAO called the World Food Summit in response to widespread undernutrition and growing concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs. Besides being a major forum for the discussion of food and agriculture matters, the FAO is an information center collecting data related to its field of work. It also acts as an adviser to governments, being a useful source of independent advice on agricultural policy and planning, on the administrative and legal structures needed for development, and on ways of ensuring that national development strategies are directed toward rural development and the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition. Its role as a development agency should be highlighted: the FAO gives direct, practical help in the developing world through technical assistance projects in all areas of food and agriculture (including fishery and forestry). These field projects strengthen local institutions, assist research and training, and develop and demonstrate new techniques.
Food Security and Nutrition The idea of international action to achieve world food security was launched by the FAO in early 1973. The international undertaking in world food security contains a set of general principles for stockholding, special assistance to developing countries (including aid to increase production), the exchange of information, and arrangements for consultations. The concept has developed further. Today, the objective of the world food security concept is to ensure that all people at all times have both physical access and economic access to the basic food they need. Its more specific aims are related to production, with special emphasis on low-income food-deficit countries, stability in the flow of supplies, and the problems of access to available supplies on the part of needy nations and social groups. The search for policies that would cope with food shortages and surpluses has been one of the main threads in FAO history. Various activities contributed to the preparation of such a policy, including the following: expanding production, improving nutrition, stabilizing prices, obtaining a fair return for producers, and coping with famine. Nutrition was a dominant theme at the Hot Springs Conference, with the adoption of eight resolutions dealing exclusively with various aspects of nutrition, far more than on other subjects. There is no single formula for curing malnutrition. The best approaches vary, according to local and national
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circumstances. The development of policies for food and nutrition is largely a question of orienting sectoral activities to have an impact on nutrition. Thus, from the mid-1970s, the FAO worked closely with a number of governments on the incorporation of nutritional objectives into development plans. A mass of information on every aspect of food and agriculture (including production, supply, demand, prices, and technology) is needed if government planners, traders, scientists, farmers, and technologists in every country in the world are to make rational decisions on planning, investment, marketing, research, or training. The FAO provides that essential information for food policy planning. For example, the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture monitors production conditions and food supply prospects worldwide and issues warnings when there are indications of trouble. The role of world food surveys cannot be overemphasized in the assessment of world nutrition status. The FAO prepares these surveys for collecting essential data on the world’s food problems. These data are analyzed and distributed to all member countries and concerned bodies as reference data for the elaboration of food policies at world or national levels. At the time of writing, the latest survey is the sixth one, published in 1996. In addition to its tasks of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information, advising governments on food and agriculture (including fishery and forestry) policy and planning, and providing opportunities for governments to meet and discuss food and agriculture problems, the FAO carries out a major program of technical advice and assistance for the agricultural community on behalf of governments and development funding agencies. The FAO is involved at every stage of agricultural development, from demonstrating new cultivation techniques to subsistence farmers to advising governments on how to achieve more stable and equitable international trade in agricultural commodities.
Food Control In the past several decades, nations have experienced extensive changes and faced new or greater problems in assuring adequate national food security, trade, and health. This trend is continuing for the following reasons: intensification of farm production and the centralization of food manufacturing; the development of large urban markets remote from the agricultural production areas; markets and consumer demands for consistent supply of safe, uncontaminated, and good-quality food and food products; the economic dependency of many countries on revenues from agricultural food exports; and the rapid growth in global food trade. Within the overall mandate of the FAO with regard to production, distribution, and marketing of food, and for nutrition improvement, the necessity of providing a safe, wholesome, and nutritious food supply, and the protection of this supply from losses, waste, deterioration, contamination, and adulteration, is implicit. It is interesting that the Hot Springs Conference noted that the FAO would play a role in ensuring “protection of the public, through the medium of pure-food laws, against impurities for adulteration and against unfair competition and undesirable trade practices.” It recommended
that the FAO should “assist governments to extend and improve standards of nutrient content and purity of all important foods.” In view of this, the FAO has developed programs to assist governments to orient their country policies and programs so as to include nutrition improvement and food protection as specific objectives. Food safety and quality start at the farm level and continue throughout the processing and distribution chain to storage and final preparation by the consumer. Good agricultural, processing, distribution, and marketing practices are essential to ensure consumer protection. Now, more than ever, food control programs are needed in order to assure that foods are safe for consumption and are sold to the consumer on fair terms; furthermore, such programs should help to reduce food losses caused by improper handling or spoilage of raw materials, prevent ‘dumping’ practices of shipping nonstandard (lowquality or contaminated) food products to countries that do not have the capability of food control, and increase the earnings of foreign currency necessary for the implementation of development plans. Food control, including standards, is therefore an integrated part of the programs developed by the FAO. Issues relating to food safety and food control draw considerable public attention and represent an important concern for governments, consumers, and the industry alike. They need to be addressed at the national level by adequate legislation, which should be developed in cooperation with all interested sectors and implemented efficiently. The Economic and Social Development Department of the FAO and especially its Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) are the main bodies responsible for the programs oriented to guarantee food quality and safety and consumer protection. Within this division, the Food Quality and Standards Service focuses on activities in the field of food control. These activities are implemented through the Food Standards Group, which provides the Secretariat for the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, and the Food Quality and Consumer Protection Group, which assists developing countries in the formulation and development of effective food control programs and gives scientific and technical support to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Technical assistance provided by the FAO in food control is based upon the fundamental elements that all effective programs must consider:
•
•
• •
A basic food law complemented by detailed regulations that provide for correct hygienic practices in food and agricultural production and processing; the establishment of food standard and codes of practice; the correct use of food additives, pesticides, etc.; and the proper use of labeling to avoid consumer deception An effective administration of such laws and regulations through an organization, which includes technical officers, inspectors, laboratory personnel, and compliance officers, together with the necessary infrastructure to carry out their tasks adequately A well-informed consumer, aware of the problems related to food control, especially with respect to good handling practices and storage Food producers, processors, and handlers who cooperate with government agencies in assuring food quality and safety
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In order to ensure food security, facilitate trade, and protect consumers, the development of the following activities receives special consideration from the FAO:
• •
•
Support of developing countries in strengthening their national strategies for quality and safety, food control systems, and contamination monitoring programs Preparation of food legislation, regulations, and standards on a national, regional, or international basis accordingly to meet changing consumer demands (e.g., food irradiation and biotechnology), new food ingredients (e.g., vegetable proteins), and new food safety concerns (e.g., veterinary drug residues and radionuclides) Technical assistance in training for food control inspectorate and laboratory personnel and for food control management staff
Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Alimentarius Commission The Hot Springs Conference noted the role of government services in ensuring the protection of the public. It recommended that the FAO, when established, should “consider the formulation and adoption of international standards to facilitate and protect the interchange of such products between countries, and agree upon international methods of determination.” In 1958, work was begun by the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts, in collaboration with the International Dairy Federation, on the establishment of the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products and compositional standards for milk products. A further development that took place in 1958 and that was to prove to be of great importance to both the FAO and the WHO in introducing an international program for the elaboration of food standards was the creation of a body known as the Codex Alimentarius Europaeus. In 1961, the Council of the European Codex Alimentarius adopted a resolution proposing that the work should be taken over by the FAO and WHO. From that moment, matters moved quickly, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1962 by the decision of the FAO Conference and the WHO Executive Board. The basic objectives were precisely those put forward at Hot Springs: removal of nontariff trade barriers caused by differing national food legislation, ensuring fair practices in international trade, and protection of the consumer against health risks and fraud. The commission assumed the role of an international forum for elaborating standards for foods moving in international trade and for providing guidance to countries wishing to create their own national food laws and regulations. The Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations concluded at Marrakesh in April 1994. It established the new World Trade Organization (WTO). Among the agreements were the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement). Both of these agreements are relevant in understanding the international dimensions of food. The SPS Agreement encourages the use of international standards, guidelines, or recommendations where they exist and identifies those of Codex Alimentarius
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(relating to food additives, veterinary drugs and pesticides residues, contaminants, methods of analysis and sampling, and codes and guidelines of hygienic practices), as consistent with provisions of the SPS. Thus, the Codex Alimentarius standards serve as a benchmark for a comparison of national sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The TBT Agreement also recognizes international standards where they exist. It requires that technical regulations on traditional quality factors, fraudulent practices, packaging labeling, etc., imposed by countries not be more restrictive on import products than they are on products produced domestically. Membership of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is open to all member nations and associate members of the FAO and/or WHO. In 30 years, the commission has grown from the original 30 countries that were present at its first session in 1963 to 165 member countries in 2001. The distribution of member countries is as follows: Africa, 41; Near East, 19; Asia, 21; Europe, 40; Latin America and the Caribbean, 31; North America, 2; and Southwest Pacific, 11. The commission has an executive committee and 29 subsidiary bodies. All of these bodies, like the commission, are intergovernmental in character. The composition of the executive committee is such as to ensure an adequate representation of the various geographic areas of the world to which the members of the commission belong. The executive committee makes recommendations to the commission regarding the general orientation of the program of the work. The main activities of the commission have been concerned with the development of international worldwide standards for foods as well as other texts on related matters, their publication in the Codex Alimentarius, and the registration of acceptances by member governments of standards. In addition, the commission, through its subsidiary bodies, is concerned with the elaboration of advisory codes of practice, which are adopted within the Codex Alimentarius. The commission determines priorities and initiates and guides the preparation of draft standards, whether by its own subsidiary bodies or with the assistance of other appropriate organizations. During its lifetime, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has elaborated more than 230 individual commodity standards, 37 codes of hygienic and technological practices, and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides covering more than 3000 potential pesticide plant and animal combinations. The Codex Alimentarius itself contains standards on the following: processed, semiprocessed, or nonprocessed food products; raw materials used in manufacturing; labeling; nutrition information; food additives; contaminants; pesticide residues; veterinary drug and hormone residues in food; methods of analysis; sampling; codes of practice; and guidelines and other recommendations. All of the previously mentioned have been published in 16 volumes of the Codex Alimentarius.
Labeling Food labeling is the primary means of communication between the producer and the consumer. One of the most vexatious problems that exporters of foodstuffs are likely to encounter is the wide disparity between different countries’
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requirements with regard to labeling. The work of Codex Alimentarius in devising and issuing the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods must be regarded as a landmark, a major achievement, in international recommendations for food legislation. The Codex Alimentarius has issued the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling, and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods. These guidelines set out the principles of organic production at farm, preparation, storage, transport, labeling, and marketing stages and provide an indication of accepted permitted inputs for soil fertilizing and conditioning, plant pest and disease control, and food additives and processing aids. For labeling purposes, the use of terms inferring that organic production methods have been used are restricted to products derived from operators under the supervision of a certification body or authority.
Nutrition Information Consumer demand for nutrition information is growing, stimulated by the media, whose interpretation and presentation of the views of nutrition scientists and on national policies are not always balanced or accurate. Few consumers have any systematic training in nutritional matters or easy recourse to reliable information sources. The natural concern for the family health leads them to use the media as their information source. The problem faced by the Codex Alimentarius was how to regulate it so that accurate and balanced information could be presented without creating a rigid system. The Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling have been issued to ensure that nutrition labeling is effective: 1. Providing the consumer with information about a food so that wise choices can be made 2. Providing a means for conveying information of the nutrient content of a food on the label 3. Encouraging the use of sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods that would benefit public health 4. Providing the opportunity to include supplementary nutrition information on the label Nutrition labeling should not describe a product or present information that is in any way false, misleading, deceptive, or insignificant in any manner, to ensure that no nutritional claims are made without nutrition labeling.
Food Additives The use of food additives is becoming more important in the production and worldwide distribution of food. As the demand for variety increases, and with it the desire to purchase goods from distant lands, the importance of food additives will increase, rather than diminish. None the less, this is a topic of great consumer concern, and the Codex Alimentarius has always treated it as such through the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (CCFAC). The CCFAC considers technological needs on the one hand from information supplied by Codex commodity committees. On the other
hand, it applies safety considerations based on the reports of the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives. The CCFAC follows a risk-based approach to develop the General Standard for Food Additives, which includes a list of additives that can be used in accordance with good manufacturing practice and specific levels of use for a number of additives for which an acceptable daily intake (ADI) has been established.
Contaminants The term ‘contaminants’ is used to denote the presence in food of traces of undesirable elements of substances, for example, traces of lead, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls, or even radioactive fallout. The CCFAC is responsible for establishing permitted maximum or guideline levels for individual food additives, for contaminants (including environmental contaminants), and for naturally occurring toxicants in foodstuffs and animal feeds. The establishment of maximum levels for contaminants is a complex subject, and there are specific difficulties to address in order to reach an agreement at the international level in this area. Sometimes, the complete or updated risk assessment is lacking, especially exposure assessment, and there is a need to update the scientific information. In addition, legislation in member countries differs widely, especially between exporter and importer countries, and it is difficult to come to a consensus; there are also several technical problems to be addressed, especially as regards methods of analysis and sampling or inspection procedures.
Pesticide Residues The use of pesticides is essential in agriculture and horticulture if crop yields are to be economically viable and, indeed, if crops are to be successful. The fact that residues can remain in the food is another topic of considerable consumer and even wider concern. There is well-justified concern that an unrestricted and uninformed use of these substances could damage health. The Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, on the basis of the work of the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting (Committee of Experts) on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), has established MRLs. MRL is the maximum concentration of a pesticide residue (expressed as milligrams per kilogram) recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to be legally permitted in or on food commodities and animal feeds. MRLs are based on good agricultural practice data, and foods derived from commodities that comply with the respective MRLs are intended to be toxicologically acceptable. Codex MRLs that are primarily intended to apply in international trade are derived from estimations made by the JMPR as follows: 1. Toxicological assessment of the pesticide and its residue. 2. Review of residue data from supervised trials and supervised uses including those reflecting national food and agricultural practices. Data from supervised trials conducted at the highest nationally recommended, authorized, or registered uses are included in the review. In order to accommodate variations in national pest control
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requirements, the Codex MRLs take into account the higher levels shown to arise in such supervised trials, which are considered to represent effective pest control practices. Consideration of the various dietary residue estimates and determinations at both the national level and the international level in comparison with the ADI should indicate that foods complying with the Codex MRLs are safe for human consumption.
Food Hygiene Poor food hygiene is a major cause of human illness. Most hygiene problems are caused by faulty handling of food and, in the case of processed or packaged food, often occur after manufacture and packaging. There are powerful reasons for the great attention paid by the Codex Alimentarius to food hygiene. In matters of hygiene, it is especially true that good practices and economic benefits go hand in hand. The establishment of effective good manufacturing practice as regards hygiene is relatively simple in principle but is far from simple in practice. The Codex Alimentarius has issued a code of practice and the General Principles of Food Hygiene. These general principles lay a firm foundation for ensuring food hygiene. The document follows the food chain from primary production through to final consumption, highlighting the key hygiene controls at each stage. It recommends a hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP)-based approach, wherever possible, to enhance food safety. The HACCP system, which is science-based and systematic, identifies specific hazards and measures for their control to ensure the safety of food. HACCP is a tool to assess hazards and establish control systems that focus on prevention rather than relying mainly on endproduct testing. Principles for the establishment and application of microbiological criteria for foods have been approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. These principles are intended to give guidance on the establishment and application of microbiological criteria for foods at any point in the food chain from primary production to final consumption.
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contaminants. This question drew the attention of the media owing to the recent occurrence of contamination with dioxins in feeds, but there are also several other issues, including the bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The commission decided to establish a specific Task Force on Animal Feeding to consider all aspects that can affect food safety. Another important emerging issue in relation to animal production is antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, and in view of its complexity, it should be addressed through a multidisciplinary approach. It is currently under consideration by the Committee on Food Hygiene and the Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods and is also relevant to the work of the task force.
Future Directions The fundamental objective of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is to establish sound internationally agreed guidelines for national food control systems based on the criteria of consumer health protection and fair practices in trade, taking into account the needs and special concerns of all countries. The new recognition and status that Codex Alimentarius standards, guidelines, and other recommendations acquired under the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) also brought new challenges and responsibilities, including the need to ensure that its standards and related texts are based on scientific principles and meet the needs and mandate of the organization. The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is also of great relevance, given the significance of the provisions pertaining to product description, labeling, packaging, and quality descriptors for consumer information and fair practices in trade. Although quality provisions are fundamentally driven by the market, the CAC has an important role in ensuring that provisions relating to quality are sound and based on the criteria of essentiality and do not constitute disguised barriers to trade.
See also: Codex Alimentarius; Legal Requirements for Food Hygiene.
Current Issues Matters related to biotechnology are at the center of considerable debate in many countries and also at the international level. In the framework of Codex Alimentarius, the commission decided to establish the Task Force on Food Derived from Biotechnology, in order to ensure a comprehensive approach and to consider safety, nutrition, and all relevant aspects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food produced from GMOs. Several food safety issues are related to animal feeding, especially contamination of feed with mycotoxins and other
Further Reading Codex Alimentarius Commission (1989) Codex Alimentarius Commission procedural manual, 7th ed. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization. FAO (1976) Guidelines for developing an effective national food control system. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Food Control Series No. 1, WHO Food Control No. 1. FAO (1985) FAO, the first 40 years. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO (1987) FAO, introducing Codex Alimentarius. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO (1988) FAO, what it is, what it does. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.
History and Purpose of the Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is an autonomous agency within the United Nations (UN) system. The organization had a membership of 180 countries in 2001. In 1943, world leaders met at Hot Springs, Virginia, the United States, and determined to lay a framework for peace through international cooperation in food and agriculture. The meeting, the UN Conference on Food and Agriculture, decided on the establishment of permanent organization in the field of food and agriculture and set up an interim commission to prepare a specific plan. This commission worked for 2 years and prepared the constitution of the FAO. The signing of the constitution and the opening of the first FAO Conference were arranged to take place in Quebec, Canada, on 16 October 1945. Representatives from 44 nations met at this date and established the FAO, the first of the UN agencies. As the commemorative tablet in Canada states, “Thus for the first time nations organized to raise levels of nutrition and to improve production and distribution of food and agricultural products.” The FAO’s goal is enshrined in its motto, “Fiat Panis – Let there be bread.” The FAO Conference is the governing body and is composed of all member nations. It meets every 2 years and is a major forum for the discussion of food and agriculture issues. It is able to take concerted action on issues of concern to its members. Recent initiatives include the adoption of the World Food Security Compact and the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticide. The FAO Conference elects a council to which a series of committees, such as the Committees on Commodity Problems, Fisheries, Agriculture, Forestry, and World Food Security, report. Many bodies have been set up by the FAO Conference and Council to foster cooperation in particular subject areas. In adopting the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources in 1983, for example, the FAO Conference provided for the establishment of the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources to guide the FAO on policy and to monitor the implementation of the undertaking. The Commission on African Animal Trypanosomiasis was established in 1979 to coordinate a large-scale FAO program to control the disease. Another example is the cooperation of the FAO with the World Health Organization (WHO) through the Joint FAO/ WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, which has issued some 200 international food standards. Along with these bodies, the FAO organizes conferences and meetings on particular issues. For example, the FAOserviced World Food Conference in 1974 resulted in a series of measures to promote world food security. In December 1992, the first International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) was held in the FAO’s headquarters in Rome. It was jointly sponsored by the FAO and the WHO. At this conference, the
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World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition were unanimously adopted, committing governments to prepare their National Plans of Action for Nutrition containing attainable goals and measurable targets based on the principles and relevant strategies agreed at the ICN. World leaders assembled in Rome in November 1996 for the World Food Summit aimed at renewing global commitment to the fight against hunger. The FAO called the World Food Summit in response to widespread undernutrition and growing concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs. Besides being a major forum for the discussion of food and agriculture matters, the FAO is an information center collecting data related to its field of work. It also acts as an adviser to governments, being a useful source of independent advice on agricultural policy and planning, on the administrative and legal structures needed for development, and on ways of ensuring that national development strategies are directed toward rural development and the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition. Its role as a development agency should be highlighted: the FAO gives direct, practical help in the developing world through technical assistance projects in all areas of food and agriculture (including fishery and forestry). These field projects strengthen local institutions, assist research and training, and develop and demonstrate new techniques.
Food Security and Nutrition The idea of international action to achieve world food security was launched by the FAO in early 1973. The international undertaking in world food security contains a set of general principles for stockholding, special assistance to developing countries (including aid to increase production), the exchange of information, and arrangements for consultations. The concept has developed further. Today, the objective of the world food security concept is to ensure that all people at all times have both physical access and economic access to the basic food they need. Its more specific aims are related to production, with special emphasis on low-income food-deficit countries, stability in the flow of supplies, and the problems of access to available supplies on the part of needy nations and social groups. The search for policies that would cope with food shortages and surpluses has been one of the main threads in FAO history. Various activities contributed to the preparation of such a policy, including the following: expanding production, improving nutrition, stabilizing prices, obtaining a fair return for producers, and coping with famine. Nutrition was a dominant theme at the Hot Springs Conference, with the adoption of eight resolutions dealing exclusively with various aspects of nutrition, far more than on other subjects. There is no single formula for curing malnutrition. The best approaches vary, according to local and national
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circumstances. The development of policies for food and nutrition is largely a question of orienting sectoral activities to have an impact on nutrition. Thus, from the mid-1970s, the FAO worked closely with a number of governments on the incorporation of nutritional objectives into development plans. A mass of information on every aspect of food and agriculture (including production, supply, demand, prices, and technology) is needed if government planners, traders, scientists, farmers, and technologists in every country in the world are to make rational decisions on planning, investment, marketing, research, or training. The FAO provides that essential information for food policy planning. For example, the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture monitors production conditions and food supply prospects worldwide and issues warnings when there are indications of trouble. The role of world food surveys cannot be overemphasized in the assessment of world nutrition status. The FAO prepares these surveys for collecting essential data on the world’s food problems. These data are analyzed and distributed to all member countries and concerned bodies as reference data for the elaboration of food policies at world or national levels. At the time of writing, the latest survey is the sixth one, published in 1996. In addition to its tasks of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information, advising governments on food and agriculture (including fishery and forestry) policy and planning, and providing opportunities for governments to meet and discuss food and agriculture problems, the FAO carries out a major program of technical advice and assistance for the agricultural community on behalf of governments and development funding agencies. The FAO is involved at every stage of agricultural development, from demonstrating new cultivation techniques to subsistence farmers to advising governments on how to achieve more stable and equitable international trade in agricultural commodities.
Food Control In the past several decades, nations have experienced extensive changes and faced new or greater problems in assuring adequate national food security, trade, and health. This trend is continuing for the following reasons: intensification of farm production and the centralization of food manufacturing; the development of large urban markets remote from the agricultural production areas; markets and consumer demands for consistent supply of safe, uncontaminated, and good-quality food and food products; the economic dependency of many countries on revenues from agricultural food exports; and the rapid growth in global food trade. Within the overall mandate of the FAO with regard to production, distribution, and marketing of food, and for nutrition improvement, the necessity of providing a safe, wholesome, and nutritious food supply, and the protection of this supply from losses, waste, deterioration, contamination, and adulteration, is implicit. It is interesting that the Hot Springs Conference noted that the FAO would play a role in ensuring “protection of the public, through the medium of pure-food laws, against impurities for adulteration and against unfair competition and undesirable trade practices.” It recommended
that the FAO should “assist governments to extend and improve standards of nutrient content and purity of all important foods.” In view of this, the FAO has developed programs to assist governments to orient their country policies and programs so as to include nutrition improvement and food protection as specific objectives. Food safety and quality start at the farm level and continue throughout the processing and distribution chain to storage and final preparation by the consumer. Good agricultural, processing, distribution, and marketing practices are essential to ensure consumer protection. Now, more than ever, food control programs are needed in order to assure that foods are safe for consumption and are sold to the consumer on fair terms; furthermore, such programs should help to reduce food losses caused by improper handling or spoilage of raw materials, prevent ‘dumping’ practices of shipping nonstandard (lowquality or contaminated) food products to countries that do not have the capability of food control, and increase the earnings of foreign currency necessary for the implementation of development plans. Food control, including standards, is therefore an integrated part of the programs developed by the FAO. Issues relating to food safety and food control draw considerable public attention and represent an important concern for governments, consumers, and the industry alike. They need to be addressed at the national level by adequate legislation, which should be developed in cooperation with all interested sectors and implemented efficiently. The Economic and Social Development Department of the FAO and especially its Food and Nutrition Division (ESN) are the main bodies responsible for the programs oriented to guarantee food quality and safety and consumer protection. Within this division, the Food Quality and Standards Service focuses on activities in the field of food control. These activities are implemented through the Food Standards Group, which provides the Secretariat for the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, and the Food Quality and Consumer Protection Group, which assists developing countries in the formulation and development of effective food control programs and gives scientific and technical support to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Technical assistance provided by the FAO in food control is based upon the fundamental elements that all effective programs must consider:
•
•
• •
A basic food law complemented by detailed regulations that provide for correct hygienic practices in food and agricultural production and processing; the establishment of food standard and codes of practice; the correct use of food additives, pesticides, etc.; and the proper use of labeling to avoid consumer deception An effective administration of such laws and regulations through an organization, which includes technical officers, inspectors, laboratory personnel, and compliance officers, together with the necessary infrastructure to carry out their tasks adequately A well-informed consumer, aware of the problems related to food control, especially with respect to good handling practices and storage Food producers, processors, and handlers who cooperate with government agencies in assuring food quality and safety
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
In order to ensure food security, facilitate trade, and protect consumers, the development of the following activities receives special consideration from the FAO:
• •
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Support of developing countries in strengthening their national strategies for quality and safety, food control systems, and contamination monitoring programs Preparation of food legislation, regulations, and standards on a national, regional, or international basis accordingly to meet changing consumer demands (e.g., food irradiation and biotechnology), new food ingredients (e.g., vegetable proteins), and new food safety concerns (e.g., veterinary drug residues and radionuclides) Technical assistance in training for food control inspectorate and laboratory personnel and for food control management staff
Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Alimentarius Commission The Hot Springs Conference noted the role of government services in ensuring the protection of the public. It recommended that the FAO, when established, should “consider the formulation and adoption of international standards to facilitate and protect the interchange of such products between countries, and agree upon international methods of determination.” In 1958, work was begun by the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts, in collaboration with the International Dairy Federation, on the establishment of the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products and compositional standards for milk products. A further development that took place in 1958 and that was to prove to be of great importance to both the FAO and the WHO in introducing an international program for the elaboration of food standards was the creation of a body known as the Codex Alimentarius Europaeus. In 1961, the Council of the European Codex Alimentarius adopted a resolution proposing that the work should be taken over by the FAO and WHO. From that moment, matters moved quickly, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1962 by the decision of the FAO Conference and the WHO Executive Board. The basic objectives were precisely those put forward at Hot Springs: removal of nontariff trade barriers caused by differing national food legislation, ensuring fair practices in international trade, and protection of the consumer against health risks and fraud. The commission assumed the role of an international forum for elaborating standards for foods moving in international trade and for providing guidance to countries wishing to create their own national food laws and regulations. The Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations concluded at Marrakesh in April 1994. It established the new World Trade Organization (WTO). Among the agreements were the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (the TBT Agreement). Both of these agreements are relevant in understanding the international dimensions of food. The SPS Agreement encourages the use of international standards, guidelines, or recommendations where they exist and identifies those of Codex Alimentarius
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(relating to food additives, veterinary drugs and pesticides residues, contaminants, methods of analysis and sampling, and codes and guidelines of hygienic practices), as consistent with provisions of the SPS. Thus, the Codex Alimentarius standards serve as a benchmark for a comparison of national sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The TBT Agreement also recognizes international standards where they exist. It requires that technical regulations on traditional quality factors, fraudulent practices, packaging labeling, etc., imposed by countries not be more restrictive on import products than they are on products produced domestically. Membership of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is open to all member nations and associate members of the FAO and/or WHO. In 30 years, the commission has grown from the original 30 countries that were present at its first session in 1963 to 165 member countries in 2001. The distribution of member countries is as follows: Africa, 41; Near East, 19; Asia, 21; Europe, 40; Latin America and the Caribbean, 31; North America, 2; and Southwest Pacific, 11. The commission has an executive committee and 29 subsidiary bodies. All of these bodies, like the commission, are intergovernmental in character. The composition of the executive committee is such as to ensure an adequate representation of the various geographic areas of the world to which the members of the commission belong. The executive committee makes recommendations to the commission regarding the general orientation of the program of the work. The main activities of the commission have been concerned with the development of international worldwide standards for foods as well as other texts on related matters, their publication in the Codex Alimentarius, and the registration of acceptances by member governments of standards. In addition, the commission, through its subsidiary bodies, is concerned with the elaboration of advisory codes of practice, which are adopted within the Codex Alimentarius. The commission determines priorities and initiates and guides the preparation of draft standards, whether by its own subsidiary bodies or with the assistance of other appropriate organizations. During its lifetime, the Codex Alimentarius Commission has elaborated more than 230 individual commodity standards, 37 codes of hygienic and technological practices, and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides covering more than 3000 potential pesticide plant and animal combinations. The Codex Alimentarius itself contains standards on the following: processed, semiprocessed, or nonprocessed food products; raw materials used in manufacturing; labeling; nutrition information; food additives; contaminants; pesticide residues; veterinary drug and hormone residues in food; methods of analysis; sampling; codes of practice; and guidelines and other recommendations. All of the previously mentioned have been published in 16 volumes of the Codex Alimentarius.
Labeling Food labeling is the primary means of communication between the producer and the consumer. One of the most vexatious problems that exporters of foodstuffs are likely to encounter is the wide disparity between different countries’
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requirements with regard to labeling. The work of Codex Alimentarius in devising and issuing the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods must be regarded as a landmark, a major achievement, in international recommendations for food legislation. The Codex Alimentarius has issued the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling, and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods. These guidelines set out the principles of organic production at farm, preparation, storage, transport, labeling, and marketing stages and provide an indication of accepted permitted inputs for soil fertilizing and conditioning, plant pest and disease control, and food additives and processing aids. For labeling purposes, the use of terms inferring that organic production methods have been used are restricted to products derived from operators under the supervision of a certification body or authority.
Nutrition Information Consumer demand for nutrition information is growing, stimulated by the media, whose interpretation and presentation of the views of nutrition scientists and on national policies are not always balanced or accurate. Few consumers have any systematic training in nutritional matters or easy recourse to reliable information sources. The natural concern for the family health leads them to use the media as their information source. The problem faced by the Codex Alimentarius was how to regulate it so that accurate and balanced information could be presented without creating a rigid system. The Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling have been issued to ensure that nutrition labeling is effective: 1. Providing the consumer with information about a food so that wise choices can be made 2. Providing a means for conveying information of the nutrient content of a food on the label 3. Encouraging the use of sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods that would benefit public health 4. Providing the opportunity to include supplementary nutrition information on the label Nutrition labeling should not describe a product or present information that is in any way false, misleading, deceptive, or insignificant in any manner, to ensure that no nutritional claims are made without nutrition labeling.
Food Additives The use of food additives is becoming more important in the production and worldwide distribution of food. As the demand for variety increases, and with it the desire to purchase goods from distant lands, the importance of food additives will increase, rather than diminish. None the less, this is a topic of great consumer concern, and the Codex Alimentarius has always treated it as such through the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (CCFAC). The CCFAC considers technological needs on the one hand from information supplied by Codex commodity committees. On the other
hand, it applies safety considerations based on the reports of the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives. The CCFAC follows a risk-based approach to develop the General Standard for Food Additives, which includes a list of additives that can be used in accordance with good manufacturing practice and specific levels of use for a number of additives for which an acceptable daily intake (ADI) has been established.
Contaminants The term ‘contaminants’ is used to denote the presence in food of traces of undesirable elements of substances, for example, traces of lead, cadmium, polychlorinated biphenyls, or even radioactive fallout. The CCFAC is responsible for establishing permitted maximum or guideline levels for individual food additives, for contaminants (including environmental contaminants), and for naturally occurring toxicants in foodstuffs and animal feeds. The establishment of maximum levels for contaminants is a complex subject, and there are specific difficulties to address in order to reach an agreement at the international level in this area. Sometimes, the complete or updated risk assessment is lacking, especially exposure assessment, and there is a need to update the scientific information. In addition, legislation in member countries differs widely, especially between exporter and importer countries, and it is difficult to come to a consensus; there are also several technical problems to be addressed, especially as regards methods of analysis and sampling or inspection procedures.
Pesticide Residues The use of pesticides is essential in agriculture and horticulture if crop yields are to be economically viable and, indeed, if crops are to be successful. The fact that residues can remain in the food is another topic of considerable consumer and even wider concern. There is well-justified concern that an unrestricted and uninformed use of these substances could damage health. The Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues, on the basis of the work of the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting (Committee of Experts) on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), has established MRLs. MRL is the maximum concentration of a pesticide residue (expressed as milligrams per kilogram) recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to be legally permitted in or on food commodities and animal feeds. MRLs are based on good agricultural practice data, and foods derived from commodities that comply with the respective MRLs are intended to be toxicologically acceptable. Codex MRLs that are primarily intended to apply in international trade are derived from estimations made by the JMPR as follows: 1. Toxicological assessment of the pesticide and its residue. 2. Review of residue data from supervised trials and supervised uses including those reflecting national food and agricultural practices. Data from supervised trials conducted at the highest nationally recommended, authorized, or registered uses are included in the review. In order to accommodate variations in national pest control
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requirements, the Codex MRLs take into account the higher levels shown to arise in such supervised trials, which are considered to represent effective pest control practices. Consideration of the various dietary residue estimates and determinations at both the national level and the international level in comparison with the ADI should indicate that foods complying with the Codex MRLs are safe for human consumption.
Food Hygiene Poor food hygiene is a major cause of human illness. Most hygiene problems are caused by faulty handling of food and, in the case of processed or packaged food, often occur after manufacture and packaging. There are powerful reasons for the great attention paid by the Codex Alimentarius to food hygiene. In matters of hygiene, it is especially true that good practices and economic benefits go hand in hand. The establishment of effective good manufacturing practice as regards hygiene is relatively simple in principle but is far from simple in practice. The Codex Alimentarius has issued a code of practice and the General Principles of Food Hygiene. These general principles lay a firm foundation for ensuring food hygiene. The document follows the food chain from primary production through to final consumption, highlighting the key hygiene controls at each stage. It recommends a hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP)-based approach, wherever possible, to enhance food safety. The HACCP system, which is science-based and systematic, identifies specific hazards and measures for their control to ensure the safety of food. HACCP is a tool to assess hazards and establish control systems that focus on prevention rather than relying mainly on endproduct testing. Principles for the establishment and application of microbiological criteria for foods have been approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. These principles are intended to give guidance on the establishment and application of microbiological criteria for foods at any point in the food chain from primary production to final consumption.
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contaminants. This question drew the attention of the media owing to the recent occurrence of contamination with dioxins in feeds, but there are also several other issues, including the bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The commission decided to establish a specific Task Force on Animal Feeding to consider all aspects that can affect food safety. Another important emerging issue in relation to animal production is antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, and in view of its complexity, it should be addressed through a multidisciplinary approach. It is currently under consideration by the Committee on Food Hygiene and the Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods and is also relevant to the work of the task force.
Future Directions The fundamental objective of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is to establish sound internationally agreed guidelines for national food control systems based on the criteria of consumer health protection and fair practices in trade, taking into account the needs and special concerns of all countries. The new recognition and status that Codex Alimentarius standards, guidelines, and other recommendations acquired under the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) also brought new challenges and responsibilities, including the need to ensure that its standards and related texts are based on scientific principles and meet the needs and mandate of the organization. The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is also of great relevance, given the significance of the provisions pertaining to product description, labeling, packaging, and quality descriptors for consumer information and fair practices in trade. Although quality provisions are fundamentally driven by the market, the CAC has an important role in ensuring that provisions relating to quality are sound and based on the criteria of essentiality and do not constitute disguised barriers to trade.
See also: Codex Alimentarius; Legal Requirements for Food Hygiene.
Current Issues Matters related to biotechnology are at the center of considerable debate in many countries and also at the international level. In the framework of Codex Alimentarius, the commission decided to establish the Task Force on Food Derived from Biotechnology, in order to ensure a comprehensive approach and to consider safety, nutrition, and all relevant aspects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and food produced from GMOs. Several food safety issues are related to animal feeding, especially contamination of feed with mycotoxins and other
Further Reading Codex Alimentarius Commission (1989) Codex Alimentarius Commission procedural manual, 7th ed. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization. FAO (1976) Guidelines for developing an effective national food control system. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization FAO Food Control Series No. 1, WHO Food Control No. 1. FAO (1985) FAO, the first 40 years. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO (1987) FAO, introducing Codex Alimentarius. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO (1988) FAO, what it is, what it does. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization.