Codex committee meeting on food hygiene .inaugurated

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) Minister of Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi today inaugurated the 39th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene(CCFH) being organised by the Ministry from October 30 to November 4.

Ms Lakshmi said food safety legislation alone is not enough to maintain a high quality of food hygiene. It must be complemented by efforts to improve the overall standard of education among consumers.

This is a fundamental area where progress could easily be made by teaching basic food hygiene in schools and through the media, she emphasised.

CCFH is an important committee whose deliberations have impact on Indian exports. Thus, exposure of various segments of Trade and Industry are considered very useful.

The committee is responsible for drafting basic provisions on food hygiene applicable to all food as well as for considering amendments, if necessary, pertaining to the provisions on hygiene contained in Codex Commodity Standard.

Nearly 200 delegates from all over the world, both developing and developed countries are participating in the session.

The technical meetings of the CCFH are held every year. So far it has had 38 sessions. The Codex Commission while discussing the Strategic Framework and the Action Plan emphasised the need to encourage developing countries to convene Codex Committee meetings periodically.

The meeting was attended by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Naresh Dayal, Joint Secretary Debasish Panda and many other senior officials from the Ministry and senior members from the Codex committee, representatives from the World Health Organisation(WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Geneva.

UNI