Host Government: United States of America

The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH):

• Develops basic provisions on food hygiene applicable to all food or to specific food types;
• Considers and amends or endorses provisions on food hygiene contained in Codex commodity standards and codes of practice developed by other Codex commodity committees;
• Considers specific food hygiene problems assigned to it by the Commission;
• Suggests and prioritizes areas where there is a need for microbiological risk assessment at the international level and develops questions to be addressed by the risk assessors; and
• Considers microbiological risk management matters in relation to food hygiene and in relation to FAO/WHO risk assessments.

The 42nd Session of the CCFH met in Kampala, Uganda, on November 29-December 3, 2010. The reference document is ALINORM REP 11/FH. Two documents that advanced to Step 5/8 at the 42nd session will be considered for final adoption by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) at the 34th session in July 2011. Those documents being considered for final adoption at Step 5/8 are:

• Proposed draft Guideline for the Control of Campylobacter and Salmonella spp in Chicken Meat
• Proposed draft Revision of the Recommended International Code of Hygienic Practice for Collecting, Processing and Marketing of Natural Mineral Waters

The Committee continues to work on the following:

• Proposed draft Guidelines on the Application of General Principles of Food Hygiene to the Control of Viruses in Food (at Step 3)
• Proposed Revision of the Principles for the Establishment and Application of Microbiological Criteria for Foods (at Step 2/3)

The Committee agreed to begin new work on:

• Guidelines for Control of specific Zoonotic Parasites in Meat: Trichinella spiralis and Cysticercus bovis
• Annex on Melons to the Code of Hygienic Practice for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
• Discussion paper on the review of the risk analysis principles and procedures applied by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene

Delegate's Report from the 44th Session of the Committee held in New Orleans, LA, Nov 12-16, 2012

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