FAO, NCC present revised National Codex Committee Manual for standard food

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the National Codex Committee (NCC) have presented and disseminated the revised National Codex Committee Procedural Manual.

The NCC is saddled with the responsibility of implementing the standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission which was established in 1963 to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO and WHO Food Standards Programme.

The FAO country representatives to Nigeria and ECOWAS who was represented by FAO Nigeria assistant representative, Mr David Fehintola while speaking at the 1-Day Sensitization Workshop for high-level policy and decision-makers and the public presentation of the National Codex Committee Procedural Manual, said the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), was jointly established in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

He said since the inception of CAC, FAO has worked with WHO in the development of international food standards, guidelines, and codes of practices to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair trade practices in the food trade using the principles of risk analysis and scientific advice provided by joint FAO/WHO expert bodies and consultations.

“In Nigeria, the FAO country office with support from the regional office for Africa continues to partner with the Government of Nigeria and the National Codex Committee towards creating effective and efficient policies and strategies to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the country.

“FAO believes that ensuring the supply of safe, quality and nutritious foods is as important as ensuring the availability of foods and food standardization.”Poor quality foods do not ensure food security.”

“FAO has been supporting the National Codex Committee (NCC) in Nigeria, which has members from all the MDAS and the Private sector through the execution of the Codex Trust Fund 2 activities with a focus on the implementation of the Codex Strategic Plan 2020-2025,” he said.

Also, the Director General of Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), Farouk Salim said the National Codex Committee Procedural Manual was first prepared in line with the CAC procedural manual published in 2002, with further revisions in 2007 and 2012 to guide the activities and improve functions of all the stakeholders involved for effective operations.

He said the review of the NCC Procedural Manual was necessary to keep abreast with the growth of Codex activities over time, incorporate major changes, and improve and strengthen Codex’s structure in Nigeria.

Salim who was represented by Professor Olobayo Kunle further stated that the National Codex Committee (NCC) Nigeria successfully applied for the Codex Trust Fund (CTF) 2 support to build strong, solid and sustainable national capacity to engage in Codex activities through the organization of annual awareness and advocacy workshops with political decision-makers, targeted competent authorities and other stakeholders to disseminate more information on Codex.

He said the overall objective of the activity is to sensitize public decision-makers and competent authorities on the need to engage more in the national codex and to regularly provide all the support to increase its actions in favour of food safety at the national level.

Their activity according to him is designed to create awareness of Codex activities for high-level policy and decision-makers from the National Legislature as well as Stakeholders in Food Industries, general and media, and advocate for more support, financial, legislative and human for the national codex.

“Improve the technical capacities for NCC members, farmers, processors, industry, universities and research institutions, present to the public and distribute NCC Procedural Manual as sufficiently as possible,” he stated.

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