WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Food Safety and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a public meeting to provide information and receive comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions that will be discussed at the 41st Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), to be held in San Diego, Calif., November 16 – 20, 2009.
The public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, 2009, from 1 to 4 p.m., in Room 1A-003, FDA, Harvey Wiley Federal Building, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD. Items that will be discussed include: Draft Annex for Fresh Leafy Vegetables to the Code of Hygienic Practice for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Draft Guidelines for the Control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in Chicken Meat, Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Control of Viruses in Food and Draft Codes of Practice for Vibrio in Seafood. A complete agenda and documents relating to the 41st Session of CCFH will be available on the Codex Alimentarius Web site at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/current.asp.
CCFH was established to draft basic provisions on food hygiene applicable to all food. The Committee is hosted by the United States.
Codex was created in 1963 by two United Nations organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Codex develops food standards, guidelines and codes of practice in order to protect the health of consumers, ensure fair food trade practices and promote coordination of food standards undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.
For further information concerning the 41st Session of the CCFH, contact Barbara McNiff by phone at (202) 690-4719 or by e-mail at Barbara.McNiff@fsis.usda.gov. Individuals are invited to submit their comments electronically to the following e-mail address: Donald.Zink@fda.hhs.gov.
For further information about the public meeting, contact Jasmine Matthews, Program Analyst, U.S. Codex Office, by phone at (202) 690-1124 or by e-mail at Jasmine.Matthews@fsis.usda.gov. For attendees who plan to drive to the meeting, it is recommended that they contact Jasmine Matthews and provide their name, vehicle make, model, color, and license plate number, by October 23, 2009, in order to expedite entry to the parking lot.
Source: USDA FSIS
