Codex Alimentarius Opens in Perth the 28th Session of Its Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems

Codex Alimentarius, the food standards body of FAO and WHO, has been holding since October 12, 2026, in Perth, Australia, the 28th Session of its Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS28), according to the meeting's official page. The program provides for an in-person working group on October 11, plenary sessions from October 12 to 15, and adoption of the report on Saturday, October 17. Parallel events are also held, including one on digitalizing food control systems, featuring experiences such as a remote meat inspection pilot in Ghana, electronic notification systems in the fisheries sector, and a machine learning initiative on street food safety in Kolkata. The session is hybrid: delegates may take part remotely in the plenaries and the working group, with simultaneous interpretation in English, French, and Spanish, and it is broadcast live in listen-only mode for members, observers, and the public.

The committee develops principles and guidelines for food inspection and certification systems applied to food traded between countries, the basis on which authorities decide whether to accept an imported lot and which certificates to require. The intersessional work arriving in Perth covers five fronts: guidance on the list of establishments approved for export and the consolidation of equivalence guidelines, discussed in Oslo from March 17 to 19; standardization of how sanitary requirements are represented, led by an electronic working group; guidelines on preventing and controlling food fraud, with a virtual group that on May 21 addressed pending issues, especially animal feed; a workshop on emerging global topics held on June 22; and the review of the principles for traceability and product tracing (CXG 60-2006), which held a meeting in Vienna in June 2025.

These topics matter for microbiological food safety because health certificates and establishment lists are the filter that decides which pathogens are controlled at origin and how they are verified. A harmonized guide on equivalence allows one country to accept another's controls without repeating analyses, and traceability is the tool that allows a contaminated lot to be withdrawn quickly when a shipment crosses several borders.

For laboratories and exporters, the outcome in Perth will shape how controls are documented and what analytical evidence will accompany shipments in the coming years. The committee has not yet issued conclusions: its decisions will be known with the report adopted on October 17. This is regulatory work and does not describe an outbreak or a specific microorganism, so it is not associated with a specific TAAG assay.