Michael de Laine

Salmonella deaths put focus on food safety and an unknown organisation

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 3 March 2009

At least 14 people died in Denmark last year during two outbreaks of salmonella, in which the bacteria made 3,700 people ill. Salmonella infections made 1,700 people ill in 2007. The rise comes after an action plan over several years succeeded in reducing the number of infections. The new cases of salmonella poisoning have put the focus on food safety again, and on a little-known organisation that works to improve food safety.

At least 14 people died in Denmark last year during two outbreaks of salmonella, in which the bacteria made 3,700 people ill. One outbreak alone resulted in 1,200 registered cases of salmonella poisoning - but it is believed that at least 12,000 people were affected, without going to a doctor.

Salmonella infections made 1,700 people ill in 2007.

The rise in the number of reported salmonella poisoning cases comes after an action plan over several years succeeded in reducing the number of infections. A multi-million amount in Danish kroner has been used to improve inspections of farmers’ stocks and meat processing plants. The incident in October and November 2008, which led to 37 registered cases of salmonella poisoning, derived from a Danish pig herd.

The new cases of salmonella poisoning have put the focus on food safety again, and on Codex Alimentarius, a little-known organisation that works to improve food safety but does not have a role to play in salmonella poisoning. Codex Alimentarius means ‘food code’.

The organisation is an independent organ set up under two United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.

As well as protecting consumers’ health, the programme aims at ensuring fair trading practices for all countries in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission – the body charged with developing the food codes – the body’s food codes have become the global reference points for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control agencies and the international food trade.

“The code has had an enormous impact on the thinking of food producers and processors as well as on the awareness of the end users – the consumers,” the commission says. “Its influence extends to every continent, and its contribution to the protection of public health and fair practices in the food trade is immeasurable.”

The commission says the way in which Codex Alimentarius is set up and works “presents a unique opportunity for all countries to join the international community in formulating and harmonizing food standards and ensuring their global implementation. It also allows them a role in the development of codes governing hygienic processing practices and recommendations relating to compliance with those standards.”

As with the recent cases of salmonella poisoning in Denmark, food-borne illnesses are at best unpleasant – at worst they can be fatal. But there are other consequences.

“Outbreaks of food-borne illness can damage trade and tourism and can lead to loss of earnings, unemployment and litigation,” the Codex Alimentarius Commission says. “Poor quality food can destroy the commercial credibility of suppliers, both nationally and internationally, while food spoilage is wasteful and costly and can adversely affect trade and consumer confidence.”

The commission says creating standards “that at once protect consumers, ensure fair practices in the sale of food and facilitate trade is a process that involves specialists in numerous food-related scientific disciplines, together with consumers’ organizations, production and processing industries, food control administrators and traders.

“As more people become involved in the formulation of standards and as the Codex Alimentarius – including related codes and recommendations – covers further ground, so the commission’s activities are becoming better known and its influence strengthened and widened.”

So far, the body has prepared more than 200 standards for various food products. It has also decided on 3,000 threshold limits for traces of pesticides and veterinary medicines, as well as rules for hygiene and handling food products.

At a meeting on 26 February, arranged by the Danish consumer organization Aktive Forbrugere, which works for sustainable and better consumer behaviour, Copenhagen Voice spoke with Knud Østergaard of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration - which is charged with overseeing food safety and health from farm to fork. Østergaard is also vice-chair of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

At the meeting, Østergaard emphasised that food safety is an international matter - food crosses frontiers. Codex Alimentarius is also international - at the turn of the year it had 180 members, in the form of national delegations comprising representatives of consumer organisations, ministries and business organisations.

This sometimes means negotiations are opaque, and moving from an idea for a standard or code of practice to the Codex Alimentarius Commission proposing the standard or code of practice to the FAO, WHO and member countries can take six years. Although the standards or code of practice are not binding on the members, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has turned them into the international benchmark for use in trade disputes - which means that WTO members recognise them.

Bjarne Pedersen, deputy director of the global NGO Consumers International, said the challenge always facing Codex Alimentarius is ensuring that consumers’ interests are given the highest priority and are not over-ridden by trade interests.

Christian Friis Bach, the head of international operations at the aid NGO DanChurchAid, said less-developed countries in particular have difficulties showing that the live up to the standards set by Codex Alimentarius - they simply do not have the systems in place to provide the documentation. Bach suggests that part of Danish foreign aid should be in the form of standards documentation.

Freelance journalist Birthe Sonne Kristensen has written a book, ‘Som dråber på sten/Like water on a stone’, on Codex Alimentarius and her experiences from attending one of the body’s meetings.

Click here to go to the Codex Alimentarius website

Click here to go to Aktive Forbrugere’s website