Codex Alimentarius: food quality and safety standards for international trade.

Since 1962, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Health Organisation has been responsible for developing standards, guidelines and other recommendations on the quality and safety of food to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in food trade. The mission of the CAC remains relevant, but a number of factors have shown the need for new techniques to form the basis of food standards, the most important of which is risk analysis. The authors give a brief description of the role and work of the CAC and the efforts deployed by the Commission to respond to the challenges posed by new approaches to government regulation, harmonisation of national requirements based on international standards and the role of civil society.