BERLIN—While the goals of the Codex Alimentarius are to protect consumers' health and ensure fair practices in food trade , product claims and safety misunderstandings have interfered with progress, according to a recently published paper (Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2011 Jun 1;60(1):161-4).
Product manufacturers can aid the Codex’s goal by providing health claims based on the totality of available scientific evidence, including observational data collected from large populations as well as the results from randomized clinical trials, according to the paper.
On the safety side, risk should be evaluated using high-quality experimental data, with anecdotal information having a lesser role, they wrote. Further, the authors noted regulatory policy would be improved if "history of safe use" were to be better defined and described when it’s used as a way to evaluate safety. The authors argue that a product category’s history of safe use should be considered in making policy recommendations, and they go so far as stating that, “The global regulatory system would benefit from an internationally recognized definition for history of safe use and agreed set of criteria to establish such a history."
The authors of the paper cautioned that too often regulatory agencies make policy decisions based solely on the results of randomized control trials or the “risk perception" of the public at large. The authors argue that these can be poor methods for determining the role and safety of nutrients in supporting good health. Instead, the authors maintain that these policy decisions should be made based on the entire body of evidence available, including observational data, and identifying acceptable safety limits should be based “on a robust scientific approach."
The Codex documents provide the food standards and guidelines recognized by the United Nation organizations the World Trade Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and give templates for individual nations, but they are not binding for domestic policies. The authors noted many governments look to Codex decisions when developing national food regulations, including those applied to imported products.
CRN-I, the international subsidiary of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said the article reflected presentations and discussions on food safety and claims policies during its 2010 scientific conference held in Europe. CRN-I will hold its second scientific symposium in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany, on Nov. 12, 2011, immediately prior to a Codex committee meeting (CCNFSDU). This year’s symposium, “Nutrition Issues in Codex: Health Claims and Nutrient Reference Values," is designed to bring together international regulators, policymakers, nutrition scientists and academics to engage in science-based discussions on nutrition issues related to the Codex Alimentarius.
