U.S. Codex Delegates Schedule Meeting to Discuss Food Labeling

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced an April 7, 2010, public meeting to discuss draft U.S. positions for the 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL) slated for May 3-7, 2010, in Quebec City, Canada. Issues to be discussed include (i) “Labeling Provisions in Draft Codex Standards”; (ii) “Implementation of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health,” which includes consideration of the “List of Nutrients That Are Always Declared on a Voluntary or Mandatory Basis,” and the legibility and readability of nutrition labeling; (iii) “Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labeling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods”; (iv) “Labeling of Foods and Food Ingredients Obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/ Genetic Engineering”; and (v) “Discussion Paper on the Need to Amend the General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods in Line with the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML).” See Federal Register, March 25, 2010.