U.S. Codex Office finalizing strategic plan

A public meeting on the food standards program is scheduled for Nov. 2 at USDA headquarters in Washington.    The interagency U.S. Codex Office is finalizing its fiscal year 2019-2023 strategic plan and will hold a public meeting from 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 2 at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., the office said in a Federal Register notice on Thursday.
   During the meeting, the U.S. Codex Office will brief the public and collect information on the plan’s goals and objectives.
   The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization established Codex in 1963.
   Through adoption of food standards, codes of practice and other guidelines developed by its committees — and by promoting their adoption and implementation by governments — Codex seeks to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair food trade practices, USDA noted.
   The U.S. Codex Program is a government interagency partnership that engages stakeholders in advancing science-based sanitary/phytosanitary food standards, USDA said.
   The U.S. Codex Office is housed in USDA’s Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs mission area and acts as the national focal point for the U.S. program, managing the planning, support, policy development and coordination of U.S. involvement in Codex, developing strategies to accomplish U.S. objectives and serving as secretariat for U.S.-hosted communities, USDA said.