VinaCert attended the Conference on summarizing the activities of the seventh Session Vietnam national Codex Committee (17/01/2019)

 
View of the conference

During the 7^th term, the Vietnam national Codex Committee had many typical activities: effective participation in advisory activities to provide information and feedback to agencies of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade on food safety: food labeling, management and use of food additives, pesticide residues, microbiological analysis in food, veterinary medicine residues in food, milk and dairy products, etc.

The Vietnam national Codex Committee coordinated the relevant agencies, Ministries and enterprises to organize the Technical Committee meeting of the Vietnam national Codex Committee, giving draft documents of International Codex Commission related to food production and trading in Vietnam; proposing Ministries, branches and enterprises to dispatch experts to join the electronic working groups (EWG) of international Codex Technical Committee.

Also during the seventh term, Vietnam national Codex Committee dispatched 22 delegations to attend Codex meeting with the participation of 86 representatives of Ministries and enterprises. At the same time, there were many bilateral international cooperation activities with international organizations and enterprises to make use of international information to serve the Committee's activities; contribute ideas to the draft Codex international standards such as nutritional formula products for children, use Nitrate and Nitrit food additives, active ingredients of pesticide in 2019; comment on the mechanism of operation of the ASEAN Group on Codex (ATFC) to strengthen the network and manage the work of the Group in order to strengthen ASEAN's position at international Codex Conferences; Comment on drafting Tool for implementing Legal Framework on Food Safety of ASEAN.

The Vietnam national Codex Committee has continued to maintain and promote awareness raising activities on the Codex standard for developing food standards, regulations, harmonious importance and integration in trading and production of domestic and export food. At the same time, actively participate in training courses, conferences and seminars in the country on food safety standards.

During the last term, the Codex national Vietnam Committee translated documents, Codex standard documents and published publications for activities related to the formulation of standards and regulations on food: Codex standards for food additives - episode 1; Codex standards for milk and diary products; International Codex Committee Handbook; trade and food safety book.

According to Doctoral Associate Professor. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Director of Food Safety Department (Ministry of Health), currently, Vietnam Codex Office has increasingly issues related to professional activities. Therefore, strengthening professional skill of staffs is very essential to complete the assigned tasks.

Also according to Doctoral Associate Professor. Nguyen Thanh Phong, Participation in international Codex Technical Committee meetings is a very important activity. It is recommended that the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Trade should have a target plan and appoint annual stable officials and experts to actively and regularly participate in activities; stabilize the Codex’s  focal point to contribute ideas, build positions of Vietnamese Government in building and participating in the process of developing Codex standards to protect food products as well as creating favorable conditions for Vietnam's food exports, helping Vietnam national Codex Committee to negotiate and protect its stance in international Codex meetings.