06 April 2000

U.S. Codex Delegation Seeks Science-Based Food Safety Guidelines

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- International food safety guidelines should be based on scientific analysis, a criteria that should be especially important at next week's meeting in Paris of the Codex Alimentarius Committee on General Principles, says U.S. Under Secretary of Agriculture Catherine Woteki.

The Codex Committee on General Principles meets April 10-14 to consider international food safety guidelines and the safety of foods derived from agricultural biotechnology.

Codex Alimentarius is a joint commission of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) that seeks to ensure food safety, establish fair practices in food trade and promote the development of international food standards.

Woteki, who is under secretary for food safety, said in an interview April 5 that the United States is "not saying that countries can not consider other factors in their decision making, but they need to have a scientific basis if they want to set a standard that is higher than what the Codex standard is."

One of the first of several issues the general principles committee will consider is how to apply the so-called precaution in risk analysis of food safety, she said. "There is a Codex document that describes working principles for risk analysis that will be discussed at the meeting," she said. "That's the part of the agenda where the issue of how we use precaution, and what the European Union (EU) will be raising as the precautionary principle, will come up for discussion."

The European Union's precautionary principle in concept means that an industrial activity or product -- such as genetically modified corn [maize] -- that is thought to cause harm would be banned even if little or no scientific evidence exists that it might be harmful.

The U.S. Codex Delegation, which Woteki will lead at the Paris meeting, says in its "Draft U.S. Positions" paper that the concept of precaution is already a major principle guiding the U.S. national food safety system.

"Precaution is also inherent in the U.S. food safety system as it addresses emerging problems, food safety incidents and technological advances," the position paper said. "In a continuing effort to ensure safe food, U.S. agencies are strengthening their coordination to achieve a seamless national food safety system from farm to table."

However, the U.S. position paper says Codex must consider diverse socio-economic conditions among nations when considering precaution at the international level.

"The United States believes that there are aspects of precaution that, while appropriate at the national or community level, would not be appropriate at an international level," the paper said.

In the United States, food safety is regulated by three federal agencies, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Woteki said the general principles committee meeting is especially important in defining how biotechnology is treated in food safety standards, because the scientific consensus decisions reached affect the way other international regulatory bodies regard food safety.

"Codex worked for many, many years and played a very important role both in developing international standards, and in facilitating more trade in food products," she said. "When the World Trade Organization (WTO) was set up, Codex received an even greater prominence, because the WTO recognized the standards that Codex set."

When nations disagree over food safety issues, she said, the WTO, in settling the disputes, would look for Codex guidelines as the authoritative standard.

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