Codex Alimentarius

In this world, where eating is an essential experience, most people are not able to follow their food from the beginning of the growing cycle to the table. Food safety is a major concern and some sort of reference guide is valuable to help protect the health of consumers and make sure the international food trade follows acceptable methods of preparing, storing and shipping food.

The Codex Alimentarius is that reference guide. The Codex is a collection of recognized standards, guidelines and codes of practice as well as other recommendations that relate to food safety, food production and different foods. A commission was established in 1963 by the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, appropriately called the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The World Trade Organization recognizes the Codex Alimentarius as the reference point for resolving disputes about consumer protection and safety. The Codex covers all food whether it's processed, raw or semi-processed, but the main focus is on food that is marketed directly to consumers. There are general standards about food labeling, food additives and pesticide residue in the Codex Alimentarius as well as procedures that monitor the safety of food that is engineered using modern biotechnology.

The Codex sets guidelines that pertain to the import and export inspections and a certification system is in place that certifies that general principles of good hygiene are followed when the food is in food handling establishments. Methods of sampling as well as analysis are in place to ensure all guidelines are followed before food reaches the consumer.

All information in the Codex Alimentarius is published in Chinese, English, Spanish and French so not all the information is available in all languages. Just like other commissions there has been some controversy surrounding the Codex Alimentarius. Some people believe that the Codex is a mandatory standard for food safety, and that vitamin and mineral supplements are included in that standard.

Supporters of the Codex Alimentarius say it's a voluntary reference for food and there's no obligation to adopt the standards even when a country is a member of Codex or any other international organization.

Opponents say that because Codex Alimentarius is recognized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an international reference standard for resolving disputes, in a sense it is effectively mandatory.

Proponents claim that the use of Codex Alimentarius to resolve disputes does not exclude the use of scientific studies or other references that show evidence that a certain item is safe and the consumer is protected.

Other arguments have developed over the years as well. A German delegation put a proposal together in 1996 recommending vitamin and mineral supplements should not be sold for therapeutic or preventive reasons, and that these supplements should be reclassified as drugs. Although the proposal was accepted, immediate worldwide protest of the plan stopped its implementation. The Codex Alimentarius Commission held its 28th session the first week of July, 2005, and adapted the new Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements. In April 2011 new standards regarding herbal remedies went into effect, requiring stringent (and often expensive) testing of these products before they can be made available to consumers.

The reality of Codex Alimentarius is that it is being used by pharmaceutical companies at the behest of the Anglosphere power elite to eliminate consumer choice from health care and make historical remedies unavailable. It is a kind of slow motion genocide intended to strip away any choices for healthcare other than drug-taking. And drug-taking with its manifold side effects is a oftentimes kind of slow poison. Codex therefore can be seen as a recipe to poison the world.

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