Codex Alimentarius Urged To Support Diet, Nutrition, Prevention
Codex Alimentarius has been reluctant to fulfill its responsibilities of improving public health by nutrition and diet. The international agency passed potentially restrictive guidelines on food supplements in its 2005 plenary session but it has now been asked to move towards a more positive policy. In recently filed comments, South Africa has asked that the agency's previous equivocal stand should give way to a clear expression of support for the health of populations through nutrition as an important preventive tool to reflect the World Health Organisation's Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health.
Optimal health through nutrition is foundational to the very purpose for which Codex exists.
Image: Codex Alimentarius
Already in 2003, the South African delegation to the Codex Nutrition Committee proposed to amend the then under discussion food supplements guidelines, in the sense that"people should ... be encouraged to select a healthy diet and supplement this diet with those nutrients for which the intake from the diet is insufficient to meet the requirements necessary for the prevention of chronic diseases and/or for the promotion of health beyond the demands of preventing micronutrient deficiencies."Again in June 2004, South Africa opposed a Codex health claims rule which states that "no information may be given regarding any food's effects for the prevention, alleviation or cure of any disease."
South Africa is one of the very few voices of sanity in a health debate that generally favors pharmaceutical intervention over such time-proven methods as eating well, exercising and supplementing any nutrients that may be missing, to achieve optimal health. The country's latest recommendation to Codex urges that
- nutrients should not be seen or be treated as though they were toxins;- the sales of dietary supplements throughout the world should be unrestricted;
- trans fats added by hydrogenation of vegetable oils should be banned;
- the addition of nutrients to foods should be encouraged;
- industrial toxins in foods should be strongly restricted by legislation;
- the decline of nutrients in food crops should be compensated and nutrient density of foods optimized;
- optimal nutrition should be encouraged and supported by national and international policies;
- nutrition and health claims for junk foods should be discouraged while such claims should be encouraged for healthy foods;
- foods should be truthfully and accurately labeled;
- junk food advertising to children and young people should be banned and
- the respective chairs of the Codex Committees for food labeling (CCFL) and for nutrition (CCNFSDU) should be required to report in regular intervals on the status of implementation of the WHO's Global Strategy on diet, physical activity and health as well as the above proposed policies.
It remains to be seen whether other countries will support these clearly reasonable recommendations. Read the full reasoning for the proposed policy changes and the South African recommendations here:
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COMMENTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
e-Forum on the Codex Alimentarius implementation of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (DPAH): 15 February 1 April 2006
BackgroundWHO has assigned Codex a definite affirmative and definite responsibility to become involved in global activities to positively improve the health of consumers worldwide and implement the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH as noted in section 229 of the Report of the 28th Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting (Rome, Italy, July 4-9, 2005), Alinorm 05/28/41, (hereafter called the Report) which memorialized that assignment by stating
“The Representative of WHO drew the attention of the Committee to the fact that the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH had been developed at the request of Member States of WHO to reduce morbidity and mortality due to non-communicable disease and that the paper LIM-6 had been prepared at the request of the 55th Session of the Executive Committee.”The Representative pointed out that the World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 57.17 endorsed the above strategy and called upon the Codex Alimentarius Commission to continue to give full consideration, within the framework of its operational mandate, to evidence-based action it might take to improve the health standards of foods, consistent with the aims and objectives of the strategy. The Representative of WHO referred to the potential work to be undertaken by the Committees on Food Labelling and on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses and emphasized that coordinated work was needed to implement the Global Strategy." Section 232 of the Report focused on the importance of its implementation and "proposed that stakeholders, including consumers organizations, be consulted if a more focused document was to be developed by WHO." while the Report notes "that there was scope within the mandate of Codex for the nutritional issues raised by the Global Strategy to be integrated into Codex work."
Section 233 of that Report recorded that "the Representative of WHO reaffirmed that stakeholders would be involved in the follow-up to the Global Strategy by WHO and in the development of a revised WHO submission to be presented to the next session of the Commission" which anticipated report was to be based, according to section 234, upon the actions of those committees involved in this work. Clarifying this issue, "the Commission noted that the potential areas for action by Codex identified in the LIM paper was mainly relevant for the work of the Committee on Food Labelling and the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses". The Commission then "agreed with the recommendation of the 56th Session of the Executive Committee, to ask the WHO, in cooperation with FAO, to produce a more focused document for consideration by these Committees, including specific proposals for new work." This document was, in fact, provided to the CCNFSDU at it’s meeting in Bonn, Germany (November 21- 25, 2005). It was intended to make possible the plan of the Commission as expressed in Section 234 of the Report since "The Commission agreed that its next session would consider further the implementation of the Global Strategy, taking into account the views and proposals put forward by these Committees.”
According to the Codex Alimentarius website, the "main purposes (of Codex) are protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade". The first item in Codex's statement of purpose is about protecting the health of consumers. Codex standards, guidelines and regulations provide important guidance for member nations at the national level as sections 32 - 34 of the Report make it clear when it states in section 32, "...paragraph 4 of the Guidelines for the Acceptance Procedure described important principles of the Codex Alimentarius and provided guidance to member countries on how to implement or give regard to Codex standards in developing national regulations.” Section 33 states that when the same paragraph "... implied that Codex should not be involved with human health issues, (this) was not consistent with the emphasis put on Codex activities in the field of food safety and nutrition; (since) it assumed that Codex would not be involved in import issues, which was not consistent with the mandate of the Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems". So important, in fact, is the impact of Codex on the health of its members that the Report notes that it was proposed "that the use of Codex standards should be monitored in order to provide useful information on how Codex standards were adopted or taken into account at the national level" and that "the Secretariat should work with the WTO Secretariat to consider how to monitor information on the use of Codex standards." (Section 35 of the Report). This extension of the mandate and use of Codex standards, regulations and guidelines makes sense only if Codex's positive footprint on health is large and the effect of that footprint supports and facilitates the well-being, nutritional security and health status of the population of its member nations. The application and implementation of the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH, mandated for Codex by the WTO at the 2005 CAC meeting is designed to assist strongly in that outcome.
In section 155 of the Report, the Commission agreed to further study on recommendation #18 of the WHO/FAO Joint Consultation that it "should consider carefully whether nutrition should play a role in Codex, and if so, what that role should be." We believe that nutrition’s appropriate role in Codex is clear: Nutrition and nutritional security should play a pivotal role in Codex. It is equally clear that:
• the explicit direction of the WHO to Codex to implement the GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND HEALTH;• Codex's stated main purposes; and
• Codex’s remit
all make it clear that careful consideration of optimal health through nutrition is, in fact, foundational to the very purpose for which Codex exists. Considering nutrition and optimal health, and acting to support and ensure them as mandated will avert significant burdens imposed by preventable non-communicable disease and their dire consequences for the people of the world. Doing so will also prevent a serious dereliction of duty and responsibility to the consumers of Codex' member nations by Codex. In fact, if Codex were only about trade and not about ensuring optimal health, nutritional security and well-being of consumers, there would be no need for Codex. This is especially true for the CCNFSDU and CCFL, the primary components of the Codex system with an assigned relationship to nutrition and a role to play in nutrition within Codex. The optimal health and nutritional security of the world’s consumers depend upon a positive, not an adversarial, relationship between Codex and nutrition. Consumers’ health, well-being and their very survival, however, depend to a much lesser degree on the relationship between Codex and trade.
The WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH clearly states that chronic diseases are preventable and that the developing world is facing massive medical consequences of a nutritionally compromised food supply which it can ill afford in either human or economic terms. The strategy addresses two of the major risk factors responsible for the heavy and growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which now account for some 60% of global deaths and almost half (47%) of the global burden of disease. NCDs include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and obesity-related conditions. "Non-communicable diseases are imposing a growing burden upon low and middle-income countries, which have limited resources and are still struggling to meet the challenges of existing problems with infectious diseases," said Dr Catherine Le Galès-Camus, WHO Assistant-Director General, Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health. "The WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH strategy recommends a prevention-oriented approach that emphasizes the need for countries to develop coherent, multi-sectoral national strategies with a long-term, sustainable perspective, to make the healthy choices the preferred alternatives at both the individual and community level. (http://www.epha.org/a/1253). The WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH itself states “Nutrition is coming to the fore as a major, modifiable determinant of chronic disease with scientific evidence increasingly supporting the view that alterations in diet have strong effects, both positive and negative, on health throughout life.” It is clear that the category of foods known as dietary supplements can play a key role in eliminating world hunger and promoting world health outcomes in line with the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH and, both through it and independently from it, in line with the articulated mandate and appropriate activities of Codex.
Recommendations
In order to fulfill those requirements and mandates, it is imperative that CCNFSDU and CCFL focus on the following issues as specific agenda items in their forthcoming Committee sessions:
1. Formally recognize and accept that nutrients are not toxins. They should be subjected to sound assessment procedures which take into account empirical, clinical, statistical and peer review processes and which take acknowledged benefits and desirable impact from the use of them in order to achieve positive outcomes, into consideration;
2. Formally accept nutrients as generally safe and encourage the unrestricted sale of that category of food called "dietary supplements" at all levels, including optimum potency levels, throughout the world;
3. Ban all added trans fats derived from industrial hydrogenation in the production of food;
4. Ensure that countries are encouraged to add, and do not place restrictions on the addition of nutrients which are supported by biochemistry, clinical nutrition, clinical experience, empirical observation and customary usage to food;
5. Ensure that countries enact strong legislative restrictions on the addition of industrial toxins to food, which are not supported by biochemistry, clinical nutrition, clinical experience and customary usage;
6. Allow and encourage enrichment of foods through the addition of that class of food called dietary supplements in order to optimize nutrient density of foods. Require that countries compensate for the decline in micronutrients in agricultural produce (e.g., fruits and vegetables) as a result of the depletion of trace nutrients in soil by commercial agriculture practices through the incorporation of that class of food called dietary supplements in order to optimize nutrient density of these foods;
7. Encourage and support the development of national and international policies which, enhance local, national, regional and global optimal nutrition through life-style modification (including diet), fortification and supplementation with that category of food called dietary supplements at all levels, including optimum potency levels;
8. Identify foods that do not contribute to, conflict with or are not essential for a healthy lifestyle (”junk food”). Similarly, identify foods that can support a healthy life-style. Support nutrition and health claims in labelling and advertising for those foods that do contribute to a healthy life-style and ban nutrition and health claims on the labelling and advertising of those foods which do not contribute to a healthy life style in order to encourage health-supporting foods and discourage ones that do not support health;9. Ensure that countries encourage truthful, full and accurate labelling and advertising on all foods, which contribute to health and ban advertising and health claims on those that do not;
10. Ensure that countries develop a ban on junk food advertising to children (birth to 18 years);
11. Require that the Chairpersons of CCFL and CCNFSDU report to the Codex Alimentarius Commission every other year on the status of the implementation of the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH and items 1-10 listed above.- - -
The added emphasis is mine. Find the original South African comments here.
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Paul Anthony Taylor in the UK, one of the health activists closely following these legislative developments, has a slightly pessimistic view. He adds the following information:
The comments from other countries and NGOs can be found at the WHO website.
See particularly the comments of New Zealand, which include the following:
New Zealand supports the establishment of a group of experts competent in nutritional risk assessment to meet on an ad hoc basis with the purpose to support the work of the CCNFSDU and CCFL. We propose that such a group would focus on the science of nutritional risk assessment, enabling the CCNFSDU and CCFL to focus on the broader issues without being consumed by the detail and science of risk assessment.The findings of such a group could then feed into the CCNFSDU and CCFL deliberations in areas such as the establishment of minimum and maximum levels of nutrients and related food components in infant formula, the identification of safe and biologically available nutrient compounds for use in foods for infants and young children, criteria for the establishment of maximum levels in vitamin-mineral food supplements and consideration of the safety and bioavailability of the nutrient sources, food fortification principles, and food safety considerations for nutrients and other substances that are the subject of health claims.
New Zealand believes this is a specialist area, and therefore warrants the establishment of a specialist group.
This might not be a good development, I think, as the work on criteria for the establishment of maximum levels in vitamin-mineral food supplements could potentially become even less transparent than it is already.
From scanning through all of the published comments I can also confirm that there appears to be a consensus for any work that Codex does towards the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health to be carried out within the current Terms of Reference of the two committees involved (Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses – CCNFSDU; Codex Committee on Food Labelling CCFL). As such, the statements on some health freedom websites last year - that the Terms of Reference of these two committees are going to be changed - are predictably proving to be wholly inaccurate at best. Regrettably therefore I remain convinced that in participating in the implementation of the Global Strategy Codex is likely to pay little if any real attention to optimum nutrition or dietary supplements.
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3 May 2006
Here is a report on the meeting of the Codex food labeling committee, from Ralph Fucetola JD, the vitamin lawyer...
EU and US Square off at International Food Code Meeting
WHO/FAO Global Health Strategy at RiskOttawa – 05/02/06 - The thirty-fourth session of the Codex Alimentarius committee on food labeling (CCFL), held at the Congress Center in the Canadian capitol, is witnessing the continuation of bickering among various delegates, with each nation or block seeking advantage over the others.
Both vitamin purveyors and consumers could be the losers.
In recent years the Codex process has been criticized by the international agency's parent organizations, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization for failing to contribute to better health. WHO and FAO have mandated the Codex Commission to implement the WHO/FAO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The GS puts good nutrition, including dietary supplements, in the forefront of efforts to improve world health. The Commission has, in its turn, mandated the CCFL, and other Codex Committees, to take steps within their terms of reference to implement the Strategy.
While the representatives of many nations paid lip-service to the Strategy, when it came time to take action, calls for specific action from states such as South Africa and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the National Health Federation were marginalized or ignored.
I was at the meeting with the Natural Solutions Foundation. NSF members attended both the Organic Workshop and the Committee meeting as observers, to assess the impact of the agency on the world health crisis. NSF, along with other NGO observers, were dismayed to see a coordinated attack on natural health lead by the otherwise rival US and EU delegations. This impacted both nutrition issues and organic issues.
When one NGO (NHF) asked to have a reference to the use of nutrition for optimal health added to the committee recommendations for implementation of the Global Strategy, the US delegation (controlled by the FDA) demanded that such language not be allowed. The Chair of the meeting complied.
When South Africa made 11 specific proposals, including the significant proposal that dietary supplements be encouraged as foods, not treated as toxins, as had been the standard Codex anti-nutrient approach prior to the Global Strategy mandate, the well-constructed proposals, vigorously supported by the pro-health NGOs, were ignored by the Chair and South Africa had to insist that the proposals be included in the minutes of the meeting. These proposals can be seen at: http://www.who.int/nutrition/comment_southafrica.pdf. South Africa raising the banner that "Dietary Supplements are Foods, not Toxins" (drugs) was a very significant step to supporting health freedom of choice.
While this may seem to be dry bureaucratic infighting, the impact of the World Food Code, in our growing globalized food marketplace, cannot be under estimated. NSF is particularly concerned that cheap, safe, advanced natural approaches to optimal health will be ignored, in favor of expensive and dangerous pharmaceutical interventions that developing countries and underinsured people in the developed world cannot afford, thereby denying billions of people access to the improved diet that the Global Strategy says is essential to their health and very survival.
While "business as usual" predominated, with a dangerous assault on the integrity of organic agriculture along with the marginalization of the Global Strategy, the good news is that various states and NGOs are allying themselves with the Global Strategy and demanding that the Codex system make a real effort to implement rules for better diet for better health. The pro-health lobby did attain a consensus that WHO/FAO would review all comments and make further recommendations to the Codex Commission meeting scheduled for the WHO headquarters in Geneva this July. At that time the Commission will have to commit itself to implementing the Global Strategy without delay or prevarication.
Ralph Fucetola JD
www.vitaminlawyer.com
See also:Go Find The Truth And It Will Make You Sick
CODEX: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOU AND YOUR HEALTH?
Codex is not just about nutritional supplements. In fact, it is the primary political battlefield where the war is being waged about who will regulate and control the global food supply from farm to fork. This 'war' is being waged by an increasingly tangled web of global authorities, big business and financial interests, and, as such, trade and profit are its prime goals – not human health.National Health Federation reports on Codex meeting
This report shows how the excellent South African proposal was blocked by the majority rule of health officials who just don't care about our health:
"The South African delegate, Antoinette Booyzen, proposed the inclusion within the Global Strategy of a comprehensive list of 11 health-optimizing points, including, among other things, recognizing that nutrients were not toxins and should be generally recognized as safe, allowing the enrichment of foods with dietary supplements so as to optimize nutrient density, and supporting nutrition and health claims and advertising for those foods that contribute to a healthy lifestyle while banning such claims that do not. The NHF was the only other delegation present that spoke up in support of the South African proposal, although it could be argued that the Senegalese delegateĂs preceding remarks indirectly supported South Africa. Without broad support, the South African proposal was not accepted for inclusion."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Thursday April 27 2006
updated on Monday October 30 2006URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2006/04/27/codex_alimentarius_urged_to_support_diet_nutrition_prevention.htm
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