Impact of Codex Alimentarius

When one is working full-time, it can be a challenge to go to school full-time, too. I've done it. So have others. It's tough. Kudos to you if you've done this. Having walked in those shoes, I now opt to go to school part-time while working full-time. Helps me prevent burn out and I don't feel at any point that I'm not devoting adequate time to any class.

My second semester at MSU started earlier this month. Class for the semester: Codex Alimentarius.

The Codex isn't exactly new to me. I've been working in food safety at my job for a good 12 years. I've heard the Codex mentioned a time or twelve. But, I've never delved into it. Never looked into it or researched it. When deciding what classes I would take while achieving my Master's, I was thoroughly interested in the Codex Alimentarius class. At last! A chance to delve into it. To research it. Learn about it. I get excited over interesting things, sometimes.

My first assignment in this class is due tonight. Ooph. Talk about cutting it short. But, there's been a lot of thinking and analyzing on this. I have to evaluate what impact the Codex has had on:

1. My life

2. My company

3. My country

In truth, I would say the impact on my life is more indirect than direct. As I said, I've never researched the Codex. I don't go opening it or reading about or have anything to do with it directly in my daily life. What I do is go shopping. For food. I eat. It's rather a necessity of surviving. Any legal food manufacturing plant operating in the United States is going to have used the Codex, whether they realize it or not, to develop their food safety plans. Those plans will have determined if it was safe to ship the food they manufactured, which I then purchased and consumed. So, while it may not directly impact my life, it impacts the food I purchase and eat, and that food directly impacts my life.

The Codex has a greater impact on the company I work for. I work for a food manufacturing plant. To maintain compliance with Federal law and keep operating, we have to have a food safety plan. That food safety plan has to apply the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point for anyone not in the food industry), which are part of the Codex. We also are audited by customers and schedule with auditing companies to be audited. And I've never been part of an audit that didn't require a food safety plan. When we had our SQF (Safe Quality Foods) audit we were asked if we'd made a certain design using the Codex decision tree. You can even find in the SQF code the following:

"The SQF Codes are site-specific, process and product certification standards with an emphasis on the systematic application of Codex Alimentarius Commission HACCP principles and guidelines for control of food safety and food quality hazards."

The requirements to pass our SQF audit are based in Codex. There is no denying that the Codex has some impact on my company.

I live in the United States, which is one of the governments present during the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, I'm typing FAO from here on out, back in 1943. They even met in the United States. Fast forward to 1948 and the United States was again present in the foundation of the World Health Organization (WHO from here on out). The United States has been present since the beginning of Codex. The laws that have gone into place to govern food safety in the United States have had Codex weaved into them. You can find the requirement for a HACCP plan in 21 CFR 120.8. HACCP principles are part of Codex. And the requirement for HACCP didn't disappear with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA for short). I believe it would be safe to say that Codex is wrapped around, in, and up in all aspects of food safety in the United States. In the laws passed. In how the FDA monitors food plants. It helps shape the direction we'll go to ensure food remains safe for human consumption.

Life's short. Eat the cookies.

Rikki