Congressional and Public Affairs
(202) 720-9113
Bridgette Keefe

WASHINGTON, January 18, 2005 – The Office of the Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today announced a public meeting to provide information and receive comments on all issues coming before the 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), which will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 14 – 19, 2005.

The public meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, February 2, in Conference Room 1A001 of the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD. Agenda items for the meeting can be found at https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090305075724/http://www.codexalimentarius.net/current.asp

The Codex Committee on Food Hygiene drafts basic provisions on food hygiene that are applicable to all food and amends and endorses provisions on hygiene prepared by the Codex commodity committees. CCFH also drafts provisions on hygiene applicable to specific food items or food groups and considers specific hygiene problems assigned to it by the Commission.

Codex was created in 1962 by two United Nations organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Codex develops food standards, guidelines and codes of practice in order to protect the health of consumers, ensure fair trade practices in the food trade and promote coordination of food standards undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

For further information about the public meeting contact Syed Amjad Ali, International Issues Analyst, U.S. Codex Office, FSIS, Room 4861, South Agriculture Building, 1400 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C., 20250, at (202) 205-7760 or by fax at (202) 720-3157.

Persons requiring a sign language interpreter or other special accommodations should notify Dr. Rebecca Buchner at (301) 436-1486 or by fax at (301) 436-2632.