The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) jointly chair the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the purpose of which is to:

• Protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.
• Promote coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international government and non-government organizations.
• Determine priorities and initiate and guide the preparation of draft standards through and with the aid of appropriate organizations.
• Finalize standards elaborated above and, after acceptance by governments, publish them in a Codex Alimentarius, either as regional or world-wide standards, together with international standards already finalized by other bodies, wherever this is practicable.
• Amend published standards, after appropriate survey in light of developments.

Codex develops and encourages implementation of standards, codes of practice, guidelines and recommendations covering all aspects of food safety, including handling and distribution. In setting international standards for food, Codex has a dual mandate to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in the food trade.

Over the years, Codex has developed over 200 standards covering processed, semi-processed and unprocessed foods intended for sale to the consumers for intermediate processing, has established over 40 hygienic and technological codes of practice; evaluated over 1000 food additives and 54 veterinary drugs; set more than 3000 maximum levels for pesticide residues; and specified over 30 guidelines for contaminants. Codex has developed a wide range of specific texts covering various aspects of food safety and quality, which can be found on the Codex website www.codexalimentarius.net

The WTO-SPS Agreement states that “to harmonize sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members shall base their sanitary or phyto-sanitary measures on international standards, guidelines and recommendations”. The Agreement names the joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius as the relevant standards-setting organization for food safety.

Contact point for the Codex Alimentarius in The Bahamas:

Director of Marine Resources, Dr. Patricia Johnson
E-mail: patriciajjohnson@bahamas.gov.bs