Codex Alimentarius was established by FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) to set safety standards in the food trade.

Although the Codex Alimentarius Commission was accepted as the default international standards setting body, different fish standards could still be applied by importing countries.

(a) Participation in the twenty first session of the joint FAO WHO Food Standards Programme for the Codex Alimentarius Commission, held in July 1995 at FAO headquarters in Rome.

CHAPTER V FORMULATION OF FOOD HYGIENE STANDARDS AND MEASURES FOR FOOD

Article 11 The production, marketing and use of food additives must conform to the hygiene standards for use of food additives and the hygiene control regulations the food additives that do not conform to the hygiene standards and the hygiene control regulations may not be marketed and used.

Article 30 Imported foods, food additives and containers, packagings, utensils and equipment used for food must comply with the national hygiene standards and the hygiene control regulations.

In Japan, the Food Sanitation Law, often referred to as the Japan Agriculture Standards (JAS), seeks to ensure the safety of goods and sets minimum quality requirements for food agricultural, fishery and forestry products, and regulates the use of food additives.

Article 12 Containers, packagings, utensils and equipment used for food must conform to the hygiene standards and the hygiene control regulations.

Adherence to Codex standards helps to ensure the safety of food exports, which can lead to greater access to export markets, especially those in developed countries.

Accordingly, the Codex Alimentarius Commission5 has adopted principles for risk analysis of such substances in general, as well as guidelines for food safety assessment of foods derived from recombinant DNA plants and from recombinant DNA micro organisms.

Article 14 The administrative department of public health under the State Council shall formulate or approve and promulgate the national hygiene standards, hygiene control regulations and inspection procedures for food, food additives, the containers, packagings, utensils and equipment used for food, the detergents and disinfectants used for washing food or utensils and equipment used for food, and the tolerances for contaminants and radioactive substances in food.

In contrast to packaged foods which now have standardized labeling of trans fat content, it is impossible for an individual to determine how much trans fat is present in restaurant meals. Mandated standardized labeling of all restaurant meals would be neither practical nor cost efficient, given the ever changing menus and diverse mixtures of ingredients of meals served in restaurants.

3. Individuals have no means of evaluating the trans fat content of meals in restaurants. In contrast to packaged foods which now have standardized labeling of trans fat content, it is impossible for an individual to determine how much trans fat is present in restaurant meals. Mandated standardized labeling of all restaurant meals would be neither practical nor cost efficient, given the ever changing menus and diverse mixtures of ingredients of meals served in restaurants.

In addition to international instruments (such as the Codex Alimentarius), industrialized countries applied domestic guidelines (such as those of the United States Food and Drug Administration) to regulate safety, health, environmental considerations, packaging, animal health, and labelling of food imports.

(12) other foods that do not conform to the standards and requirements for food hygiene.

Other reforms included the introduction of cost recovery requirements at the Lokichokio base camp and the standardization of both food and non food assessment methodologies.

The EurepGAP standard, for instance, is likely to become a very important international benchmark for ensuring food safety and consistently high quality of horticultural produce.

The most illustrative examples of NTBs include plant and animal health standards, food safety standards, environmental certification and other similar export quality standards.

(b) A large number of national standards for foodstuffs, hygienic norms and requirements have been brought into conformity with the relevant recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius, the ECE, FAO and WHO

8. The participants recognized that in the food processing sector, packaging, labelling and food safety standards were of special importance in a number of export markets, especially in the OECD countries.

There needs to be a new standard of fresh, proper food for your children. Yeah?

Article 24 Food, food additives and containers, packagings and other utensils used specially for food may be dispatched from factory or sold only after their producers have carried out inspection and found them to be up to the standards according to the hygiene standards and the hygiene control regulations.

Whoever, in violation of this Law, produces or markets food which is not up to the hygiene standards, thus causing a serious accident of food poisoning or resulting in a disease caused by food borne bacteria, and seriously harming human health, or adulterates food he produces or markets with toxic or harmful non food raw materials, shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

This reduction in the standard food ration has already contributed to the high malnutrition rates in parts of the country and the shortage of therapeutic and supplementary food has prevented an adequate response to the increasing number of malnourished children and women.

Foods sold on domestic markets must have labels in the Chinese language.

(d) Target values and or product standards

The products offered in the shops are selected on the basis of studies concerning the requirements of communities and the criteria of satisfactory food standards.

The product description for any food or food additive shall not contain exaggerated or false advertising.

Sometimes countries set national norms above accepted international requirements covering areas such as food safety, animal disease, product composition (e.g. in further processed meat products), packaging, labelling and presentation and shortening of acceptable shelf life (which can place imported products at a disadvantage especially for chilled items).

(a) Nutrition education and food labelling

Article 16 Norms of significance to the science of health to be included in the national quality standards for food additives must be examined and approved by the administrative department of public health under the State Council.

Despite long standing promises by the Government, legal provisions in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure have still not been harmonized with constitutional standards.

17. Quality control and health and hygiene standards were a key area in the successful development of the food processing industries.

In addition to mandatory food safety requirements, large private retailers have introduced stringent product and process standards that require technical competencies, technical support packages and new management methods, symbolizing a move to high precision agriculture.

For example, should auctions be used only for standardized products, for those whose variable criteria can be expressed in figures or percentages, for products whose variable criteria can be expressed in price equivalents, or a combination of these features?

In this connection, the impact of international standard setting, especially in the form of SPS measures and the Codex Alimentarius, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system and ISO standards, was of particular interest to some delegations.

(a) Promote energy material efficiency standards, international product standards

This device was just FDA approved in the last year.

Recent regulations and private sector standards in the food sector present new challenges for developing country exporters of horticultural products.

This Law applies to all foods and food additives as well as containers, packagings, utensils and equipment used for food, detergents and disinfectants it also applies to the premises, facilities and environment associated with food production or marketing.

Article 15 If the State has not formulated hygiene standards for a certain food, the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the Central Government may establish local hygiene standards for that food and report them to the administrative department of public health under the State Council and the competent standardization administration department under the State Council for the record.

(d) Control over the biological safety of foodstuffs by means of standard methods of microbiological analysis.

Inadequate funding of the 2005 Consolidated Appeal Process forced humanitarian agencies to reduce the targeted number of persons receiving food assistance from 2.3 million to 1.2 million and the standard food ration by 40 per cent.

Article 22 With regard to the food indicated to have specific health functions, the products and its description must be submitted to the administrative department of public health under the State Council for examination and approval its hygiene standards and the measures for control of its production and marketing shall be formulated by the administrative department of public health under the State Council.

Such barriers are particularly pronounced in the US, where Congress oversees the legal framework within which federal regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration operate. Not only do the US administration and its federal agencies have to accept that a safety standard established and tested in Frankfurt or Athens is equivalent to its US counterpart congressional committees must agree.