Last updated: 1 May 2008
Latest news... Major success in fight to label GM products
The United States government suffered a serious setback to its efforts to get other countries to accept genetically engineered food at the annual meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL) in Ottawa, Canada (28 April - 2 May 2008). Over the vocal objections of the United States and Canada, this UN food standards body moved forward on labelling recommendations for genetically engineered food.
"Today's decision at CCFL is a major victory for consumers all over the world, who have lobbied their governments on every continent to support a Codex GMO labelling standard," said CI President Samuel Ochieng at the meeting. "Consumers have a basic right to know what is in their food. We look forward to the day in the near future when Codex will adopt this recommendation, and small countries will not have to worry about the United States challenging their GMO labelling rules at the World Trade Organization.”
Any standard or recommendations adopted by Codex are considered "legal" at the World Trade Organization. A country that follows Codex recommendations is thus immune from a WTO challenge.
Not for the first time nations have refused to heed the US call to stop work on recommendations for labelling of genetically engineered food. A proposal drafted at a Working Group in Ghana last January, that endorses the rights of countries to require mandatory labelling of genetically engineered food, was adopted at the Ottawa meeting at Step 3 of the Codex process. It must go through two more rounds of review before it is an official Codex standard however.
Because all Codex standards must be "consensus" standards, with near unanimous consent, Codex faces difficult negotiations before it can adopt these recommendations. Consumer groups noted that a new US administration might be more flexible on this issue, however.
African countries were especially adamant that the committee should adopt a Codex GM labelling standard, with more than a dozen speaking in favour of it on the floor of the meeting. The European Union, India and most Asian nations also supported a standard. It was opposed by the United States, Canada and Argentina, all nations that grow genetically engineered crops, and several Latin American countries.
About Codex Alimentarius
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1963.
It was charged with developing Codex Alimentarius, international standards on food safety.
Codex standards are officially recognised international guidelines for ensuring food safety and fair trade practices. It has a membership of over 165 countries accounting for 98% of the world population.
The 2008-2013 Strategic Plan lays out Codex's vision and objectives. At the heart of Codex is its mission to protect consumer health and ensure fair trade practices.
Consumers International (CI) represents the global consumer voice at Codex Alimentarius.
CI members are active in and attend the Codex Committee meetings. CI works to ensure that decisions taken by these committees provide the highest level of protection for consumers across the world. In order to do this, CI consults its worldwide membership in developing positions for Committee meetings.
Codex Committees and the issues
There are more than 17 Codex Committees to deal with different issues such as:
- food labelling
- food additives
- contaminants
- methods of analysis and sampling
- food hygiene
- nutrition and foods for special dietary uses
- food import and export inspection and certification systems
- residues of veterinary drugs in food, and
- pesticide residues in foods.
Consumer representatives play an important role as delegates to these meetings ensuring that consumer health and safety is at the forefront of all discussions.
More information
The Codex website provides information on Learn more about Codex and how it works.
View agendas for upcoming Codex Committee Meetings
Consumers International and Codex
Consumers International (CI) has been an important presence for many years at Codex Alimentarius, the UN food standards agency, where it has official observer status.
Many members have represented CI, and have had a very significant impact on standards in many areas, including safety of genetically engineered food, infant formula, mercury in fish, pesticide residues, risk assessment, and antibiotic use. For the last several years, grant funding has been available for CI to actively coordinate representation.
Consumers International currently has a member-led campaign on genetically modified food, one of the key goals of which it to achieve mandatory labelling of GM food globally.
Due in many cases to the hard work of CI members, GM labelling is now required in the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, Korea, China, Russia and Brazil--countries that account for about a third of the world's consumers.
If India adopts its proposed mandatory labelling regulations in the next few months, as expected, then half the world's consumers will live in countries that require GM labelling. However, because of the WTO implications, the United States and its allies have intensely opposed a Codex guideline for a decade. Please visit the CCFL Committee page for more information.
CI Comments to Committee meetings
Participating members of Codex are given opportunity to comment on agenda items prior to the Committee meetings. Issues frequently overlap between committees.
Resources for members
For the last several years, grant funding has been available for CI to actively coordinate representation. Unfortunately, that grant funding expired as of 01 January 2006. This means that CI representation at Codex will, at least for the foreseeable future, have to be carried out with interested members paying their own way to the meetings. CI will also rely on members to indicate which meetings they wish to attend.
However, a small administrative structure will remain at CI to provide support in terms of circulation of notices and background materials for meetings, accreditation to meetings, and submission of CI comments to Codex. Members wishing to represent CI at a Codex meeting should contact the CI Codex Secretariat.
Comments and position papers, as in the past, must be posted on the list serve, CI Food Programme, in a timely manner so that other interested members can comment, and the view of others must be incorporated prior to submission to Codex by the CI Codex Secretariat.
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