The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme.
What is Codex Alimentarius?
The Codex Alimentarius or “Food Code” is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The Commission, also known as CAC, is the central part of the joint FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations)/WHO (World Health Organisation) Food Standards Programme.
It was established by FAO and WHO to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade.
What are the impacts?
It will pave the way for a universal agreement on identifying quality spices in various countries.
The CAC cleared these standards at its session held in Geneva.
The adoption of Codex standards for the three spices will help to evolve a common standardisation process for their global trade and availability.
It will ensure availability of high quality, clean and safe spices to the world.
With the adoption of Codex standards, member-nations would now have reference points and benchmarks to align their national standards for spices with Codex.
What is the status in India?
The CAC move is considered a crucial endorsement of the India’s initiatives to usher in a common standard across the globe for spices trade.
The adoption of Codex standards by CAC must be read in the context of the efforts put in by New Delhi in arriving at a common code for spices trade.
India conducted three sessions of Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) at Kochi (2014), Goa (2015) and Chennai (2017).
The Chennai session especially succeeded in achieving this consensus.
Subsequently, these drafts were placed before the CAC and the member-nations adopted them by consensus.
