3.1.3 The Codex Alimentarius

The Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (often shortened to Codex) was set up to provide internationally recognised standards for protection of consumers’ health and to ensure fair practices in the food trade. 

It was initially believed that, if all countries harmonized their food laws and adopted internationally agreed standards, “such issues would be dealt with naturally”. 

Through harmonization, the founders envisaged fewer barriers to trade and more freedom of movement among countries, which would be to the benefit of farmers and their families and would also help to reduce hunger and poverty. 

The Codex commission adheres to a code of ethics for international trade in food, with the following general principles:

1. International trade in food should be conducted on the principle that all consumers are entitled to safe, sound and wholesome food and to protection from unfair trade practices.
2. No food should be in international trade which:
   1. has in it or upon it any substance in an amount which renders it poisonous, harmful or otherwise injurious to health; or
   2. consists in whole or in part of any filthy, putrid, rotten, decomposed or diseased substance or foreign matter, or is otherwise unfit for human consumption; or
   3. is adulterated; or
   4. is labelled, or presented in a manner that is false, misleading or is deceptive; or
   5. is sold, prepared, packaged, stored or transported for sale under unsanitary conditions.

The Codex Alimentarius has always been a science-based activity. Experts and specialists in a wide range of disciplines have contributed to every aspect of the code to ensure that its standards withstand the most rigorous scientific scrutiny. 

The Codex operates through a number of specialist committees [1], which include Contaminants in Foods and Pesticide Residues.

One scientific committee is the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR). The JMPR was established in 1963 following a decision by the FAO Conference that the Codex Alimentarius Commission should recommend maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticide and environmental contaminants in specific food products to ensure the safety of foods containing residues. It was also decided that the JMPR should recommend methods of sampling and analysis.

• JMPR members are independent scientists who are expert in aspects of pesticides, environmental chemicals and their residues and who are appointed in their own right and not as government representatives.
• The JMPR is independent of the Commission.
• The FAO appointees draft MRLs for substances under evaluation, based on field trials that are conducted worldwide. WHO appointees conduct toxicological evaluations of the pesticides.
• Reports of evaluations are published.
• There is close cooperation between the JMPR and the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR). The CCPR identifies those substances requiring priority evaluation. After the JMPR evaluation, the CCPR discusses the recommended MRLs and, if they are acceptable, forwards them to the Commission for adoption as Codex MRLs.

The following table is derived from the Codex Alimentarius pesticide database and lists the current Codex MRLs that apply to cocoa beans [2]. The Codex MRLs for deltamethrin, fenitrothion and lindane were revoked in 2003. 

At the time of access (May. 2022), the database includes “Codex Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides and Extraneous Maximum Residue Limits adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission up to and including its 42^nd Session (July 2019)”.
 

Maximum Residue Limits for Cocoa beans (commodity code SB 0715)