The Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) is holding a forum on EU-ASEAN Cooperation on Codex Alimentarius. It is being organised within the Better Training for Safer Food programme.

The forum takes place on 21 February 2009 at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Representatives of ASEAN Member States, the ASEAN Secretariat and the EC will attend.

Codex Alimentarius is a set of internationally recognised standards, guidelines and related texts on food, food production and food safety. The purpose of the forum is to initiate dialogue on Codex and risk assessment matters. This should lead to improved food safety cooperation for the benefit of consumers in the ASEAN region and the EU.

EU-ASEAN cooperation on health and consumer protection has been centred on the implementation of sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures related to the WTO agreement on this subject. One theme has been enhancement of ASEAN countries' control capacities in areas such as inspection, testing and certification. Another has involved developing regional food safety infrastructure including ASEAN Reference Laboratories, Common Food Control Requirements and the Coordinating Committee on Food Safety.

Further efforts have been targeted at enforcing food standards and regulations and communicating risks to the public, professionals and regulators. Better Training for Safer Food's emphasis on training, information and communication on food safety and legislation is one example. Since early 2006, ten Better Training for Safer Food workshops have been held in the ASEAN region and have been attended by over 1,000 people. Further cooperation has taken place in individual countries and at regional level under the ASEAN-EU Programme for Regional Integration Support.

Codex standards are, however, the benchmark for EU and ASEAN food safety legislation. Thus far under EU-ASEAN cooperation, limited attention has been paid to the process of establishing such standards.

EU and ASEAN Member States have established coordination mechanisms in order to carry out Codex work more efficiently. DG SANCO runs this in the EU, based on EU legislation and when appropriate opinions of scientific committees and the European Food Safety Authority. In the ASEAN region, coordination is maintained by the ASEAN Codex Task Force with support from the scientific community. Sharing experience on this matter should benefit key actors in both regions.

Risk assessment work is being carried out by scientists in both the EU and the ASEAN region. This is aimed at providing scientific opinions for consideration by risk managers. Appropriate legislation will be developed and food-control mechanisms implemented on the basis of these opinions and other relevant factors. Data from this work also contributes to the decision to adopt Codex Standards.

Given the globalisation of food trade, Europeans may well, in future, consume more food from the ASEAN region and vice versa. Increased food safety information exchange between the EU and ASEAN scientific communities is thus vital. It will help to ensure that products traded between the two regions are safe, thereby providing long run benefits to consumers in both regions.