CODEX ALIMENTARIUS – Main Outcome of the 55th session of the Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH55)

The 55th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commit­tee on Food Hygiene addressed all the topics on its agenda. In particular, it finalized revised guidelines on measures to (a) control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken meat and (b) control of Listeria Monocytogenes in foods, including interesting discus­sions on ready-to-eat foods; and on (c) two revised annexes on fish and fishery products and on water fit-for-purpose assessment, safety management, and technologies for recovery and treatment of water for reuse, as well as consequential amendments to the general section, annex I and annex III of the Guide­lines for the safe use and re-use of water in food pro­duction and processing (and finalized them) and sent them to CAC49 for final approval and publication in the Codex Alimentarius compendium on the revised guidelines on measures. It also aligned three existing guidelines (on Taenia saginata in domestic cattle meat; Trichinella spp. in Suidae -pork – meat; and on foodborne parasites) with the Codex general princi­ples on food hygiene. It agreed to return for redraft­ing the proposed draft revision of the guidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of viruses in food. CCFH55 didn’t reach a consensus to start new work on a proposal for a code of practice on cell-based foods.¹

See more information about the references quoted in this article available freely in endnotes (ii) to (iv) respectively on CCFH55 working documents², the of­ficial report of the CCFH55 meeting³, and Codex texts developed by the Committee (standards, guidelines, codes of practices, and related miscellaneous texts, and statements)⁴.

REVISED CODES ADOPTED

Revised Guidelines for the control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken meat (CXG 78)

Noting that all pending issues had been addressed, CCFH55 agreed to forward the revised guidelines to CAC49 for final adoption. CCFH55 was able to achieve this incredible result in only one reading session of the document, thanks to the outcome of the intersessional work of the electronic working group (EWG) and the pre-CCFH55 session physical working group (PWG) coordinated by the USA. The previous version of the guidelines was published in 2011.⁵

Revised Guidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of Listeria monocytogenes in foods (CXG 61)

Noting that all pending issues had been addressed, CCFH55 agreed to forward the revised guidelines to CAC49 for final adoption. CCFH55 was able to achieve this incredible result in only one reading session of the document, thanks to the outcome of an intersessional EWG coordinated by the USA with the secondment of Canada, China, and France. CCFH55 also agreed to consider at its next session a harmo­nized definition for ready-to-eat (RTE) foods across all hygiene texts, as well as its potential inclusion in the general code of practice on food hygiene (CXC 1), in view of the concerns raised during CCFH55. CCFH55 also requested the Codex Secretariat to prepare a background document on all occurrences referring to RTE foods in all food hygiene texts, in advance to CCFH56, to support such a discussion. The previous version of the guidelines was published in 2009.⁶

Guidelines for the safe use and re-use of water in food production and processing (CXG 100): finalization of Annex II on fish and fishery products and Annex IV on water fit-for-purpose assessment, safety manage­ment, and technologies for recovery and treatment of water for reuse, and the consequential amendments to the General Section and to the Annex I and Annex III of these Guidelines

Noting that all pending issues had been addressed, CCFH55 agreed to (i) forward the agreed Annex II and Annex IV to CAC49 for final adoption and inclu­sion in the Guidelines (CXG 100) for the safe use and re-use of water in food production and processing; (ii) submit the corresponding amendments to include cross-references to Annex IV, in the General Section and Annexes I and III of CXG 100; (iii) inform the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (CCFFP) about the completion of the Annex II and suggest to CCFFP that it may consider whether the Codex Code of practice for fish and fishery products (CXC 52) – as well as other Codex texts under CCFFP remit – would need to be updated; (iv) inform other relevant committees about the completion of that work on the entire Guidelines for the safe use and re-use of water in food production and processing (CXG 100), as amended after CAC49; and, (v) ensure that the texts developed by CCFH in the future would be aligned with the Guidelines for the safe use and re­use of water in food production and processing (CXG 100) in relation to water provisions.⁷

Amendments to the Guidelines for the control of Taenia saginata in meat of domestic cattle (CXG 85), the Guidelines for the control of Trichinella spp. in meat of Suidae (CXG 86) and the Guidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of foodborne parasites (CXG 88), resulting from the alignment work of these texts with the General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1)

Based on the outcome of an intersessional EWG work coordinated by China, with the secondment of the UK and Kenya, as presented in the working docu­ment CRD22, and noting that all the pending issues had been addressed during the its plenary meeting, CCFH55 agreed to forward the proposed amendments to CXG 85, CXG 86, and CXG 88, resulting from this alignment work with the general principle of food hy­giene (CXC 1) to CAC49 for final adoption. CCFH55 further noted that while the proposed amendments to the Guidelines for the control of Trichinella spp. in meat of Suidae (CXG 86) were primarily of an edito­rial nature, the definition of “compartment” had been recently revised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH/ex-OIE) and therefore substantively changed in the guidelines. It was also highlighted that chapter titles rather than numbers were used when referencing WOAH texts to support the longevity of the references, noting that the chapter numbers in the WOAH Terrestrial Animal Health Code were subject to change with future updates to the Code.⁸

NEW WORK AND PENDING WORK

Continue the alignment of those texts prioritized in the forward workplan (focusing on CXC 47, CXC 48, and CXC 33)

CCFH55 agreed to re-establish a new EWG, coor­dinated again by China with the secondment of the United Kingdom and Kenya, to continue the align­ment exercise on the other Codex food hygiene-relat­ed texts prioritized during the discussion on CCFH work plan. It was also agreed that the EWG should propose a way to document the alignment approach, through a decision-tree or other appropriate means, to be determined. As such, the EWG was tasked to work on the alignment of (a) the Code of hygienic practice for the transport of food in bulk and semi-packed food (CXC 47); (b) the Code of hygienic practice for bottled/packaged drinking waters (other than natural mineral waters) (CXC 48); and, (c) the Code of hy­gienic practice for collecting, processing and market­ing of natural mineral waters (CXC 33).

Based on the experienced learnt from this year intersessional work from both USA and Canada as coordinators of the two EWGs, it was highlighted that alignment was more manageable when undertak­en in parallel with technical revision, but remained challenging for texts with complex structures, such as those containing extensive process flow diagrams. It was emphasized the need for a strategic and flexible approach to ensure Codex texts continued to provide clear and effective guidance to users. It was further emphasized the need for transparency, whether through a decision tree or other means, and proposed that the identification of specific texts and the ap­proach for continuing this work be further considered under the forward workplan. As such, experience gained suggested that structural alignment should prioritize texts unlikely to be revised in the medium term and emphasized the importance of integrating the alignment workplan with the forward workplan to ensure consistency in CCFH’s work planning.

Revision of the Guidelines on the application of the general principles of food hygiene to the control of pathogenic Vibrio species in seafood (CXG 73), following the completion of Annex II on Fish and Fishery Products of the Guidelines for the safe use and re-use of water in food production and process­ing (CXG 100) – Consideration of parts of the text in square brackets

Based on the extensive work undertaken already on the draft revised guidelines between CCFH53 and CCFH54 sessions and as validated by CAC47’s de­cision to advance the text of the guidelines on the application of the general principles of food hygiene to the control of pathogenic Vibrio species in seafood (CXG 73) for finalization by CCFH55, CCFH had agreed to wait for the full completion of the revision of the Annex II, before considering the remaining part in square brackets referring to “water” in CXG 73. As such, CCFH55 established a new EWG, coordinated by Japan, with the secondment of Honduras, Morocco and New Zealand, to prepare and present a report how it would address the texts of the guidelines remaining in squared brackets (as included in the Appendix V of the CCFH54 report) in advance to the CCFH56 session and for its consideration.

Revision of Guidelines on the Application of General Principles of Food Hygiene to the Control of Viruses in Food

CCFH55 considered the outcome of an intersessional work led by Canada and agreed to return the pro­posed draft guidelines for further elaboration with the view to update the prevention and intervention mea­sures based on the Part 2 of the still-to-be-published JEMRA virus report and then seek further comments on the redrafted text. To help in that redrafting, CCFH55 established a new EWG coordinated by Canada, with the secondment of the Netherlands. The EWG is to continue with the revision of the guide­lines based on written comments already submitted, CCFH55 plenary discussions, and the future com­ments to be sought on the revised draft and shared a revised draft proposed guidelines text for further con­sideration by CCFH56. CCFH55 further encouraged JEMRA to continue to develop the risk assessment tool in a manner that would support implementation of the revised guidelines.⁹

Request to CAC to return the work to develop the ap­propriate sampling plans for histamine for the 11 fish and fishery product commodity standards to CCFFP

CCFH55 discussed the outstanding work on sampling plans for histamine for 11 fish and fishery product commodity standards, which had previously been suspended pending updates from the Codex Commit­tee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS). Following information provided by the Codex Secre­tariat, CCFH55 considered two options (i.e., whether to restart the work within CCFH or request CAC to return it to the Codex Committee on Fish and Fish­ery Products (CCFFP), noting that CCFFP had been reactivated to work by correspondence). While there was general support for the second option, challeng­es of working by correspondence on complex issues were pointed out. The Codex Secretariat recalled that recent revisions to the Codex Procedural Manual by CAC48 included the possibility for committees working by correspondence to hold virtual meet­ings as deemed necessary to facilitate discussions on specific matters. The Codex Secretariat further noted that CCFFP would need to be engaged in the work regardless of which committee would take the lead and that the decision should be based on technical competence rather than the working modality of the committee. CCFH55 agreed to request CAC49 to return the work to develop the appropriate sampling plans for histamine for the 11 fish and fishery product commodity standards to CCFFP; and inform CCFFP of this request, as well as the existing work of CCFH and related electronic working group (EWG) on this issue, as presented and discussed during CCFH50 in November 2018.

Risk Assessment Work allocated to FAO/WHO JEMRA

CCFH55 agreed to task JEMRA to conduct a risk as­sessment on spore-forming pathogens including Clostridium botulinum and Bacillus cereus in powdered infant formula; update the existing risk assessment and scientific advice on environmental pathogens; provide other relevant scientific advice on control measures for powdered infant formula that would inform a revision of the Code of hygienic practice for powdered formu­lae for infants and young children (CXC 66). CCFH55 also tasked JEMRA to develop the risk assessment tool in support of the revised Guidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of viruses in food (CXG 79).

OTHER ISSUES AND FUTURE POSSIBLE WORK

Consequential amendments to the Code of practice on food allergen management for food business opera­tors (CXC 80), proposed for CAC49 adoption, and preparation of a discussion paper containing a proj­ect document for the more comprehensive revision of the Code of practice on food allergen management for business operators (CXC 80) once CCFL56 concludes on its proposed Guidelines on precautionary allergen labelling (PAL)

CCFH55 considered the proposal to align the Co­dex Code of practice on food allergen management for food business operators (CXC 80) with the latest version of the General standard for the labelling of prepackaged foods approved in 2024 (CXS 1, called “GSLPF”), given the significant changes introduced in the GSLPF to the list of foods and ingredients known to trigger food allergy or coeliac disease or allergenic foods and other relevant definitions. CCFH55 agreed with the consequential amendments presented in the CCFH55’s CRD05 with the following modifications: (i) correction of typographical errors in the cross-ref­erenced section numbers from 4.2.1.4 and 4.1.2.5 to 4.2.1.4 and 4.2.1.5; (ii) deletion of the phrase “on a global basis” in the “Scope” to ensure consistency with the Hazard Characterization section; and (iii) removal of the new definition for “food allergen” at this stage, to avoid any conflict with the existing definition for “allergen” noting that a discussion on the most appro­priate definition for the Code of Practice (i.e. allergen or food allergen) could be considered in any future revision of CXC 80.

CCFH55 further noted the progress made at the last CCFL meeting on precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) and the expectation that this work would be completed as of May 2026 (by CCFL56), CCFH55 considered it would possibly result in a more substan­tive revision of CXC 80 to be considered by CCFH56. As such, CCFH55 agreed that China, in collaboration with Australia and Ghana, would prepare a discussion paper containing a project document presenting the work plan for a revision of CXC 80 subject to CCFH56 further consideration on PAL, pending the completion of work undertaken the PAL guidelines by CCFL.¹⁰

Revision of the Code of practice for the processing and handling of quick-frozen foods (CXC 8)

CCFH55 considered and discussed a proposal to revise the Code of practice for the processing and handling of quick-frozen foods (CXC 8), revised and adopted in 2008 (based on an initial version adopted in 1976). CCFH55 agreed that Chile, in collaboration with Australia and Brazil, would revise that proposal for new work on the revision of CXC 8 to broaden the scope of the revision work in line with the current commodities covered by the Code and submit a re­vised proposal for consideration by CCFH56.CCFH55 further requested the FAO and the WHO to provide scientific advice on the holding frozen temperature threshold to guarantee food safety for a range of different food commodities as indicated in CXC 8, also considering the related impact on quality and for products that had been both quick frozen or subject to normal freezing processes, noting that this might require a stepwise approach and that products of ter­restrial and aquatic animal origin could be addressed as the first priority.¹¹

Proposal for a new work for the development of a Code of good hygienic practices for cell-based foods.

CCFH55 discussed a proposal for new work on a code of hygienic practice for the manufacturing of cell-based foods, introduced by Singapore in collaboration with China, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. CFH55 noted the different views expressed and a lack of sufficient support to send this new work proposal for approval at this session. It also noted interest in continuing to collect data and learn from experiences with this topic before guidelines were to be developed and welcomed any updates or on-going work by FAO and WHO on trends and/ or concerns related to cell-based foods. to CCFH55 agreed that the proposal would remain listed in the Forward Workplan and that it could be reconsidered at a future session of CCFH.¹²

Forward workplan

Members and Observers were invited to submit discussion papers /new work proposals in response to the relevant Circular Letter by its announced deadline of September 1^st, 2026. CCFH55 agreed to establish a PWG on CCFH Work Priorities, chaired by the USA, to be held in conjunction with CCFH56 to consider the proposals received in response to the Circular Letter for new work proposals.¹³

Other matters arising from FAO, WHO, WOAH and ISO. See endnote ¹⁴.

The publication is posted in the January 2026 World Food Regulation Review: https://cloud.3dissue.com/170388/199109/233437/WFRR-Vol35nr08-Jan2026/index.html. Find the full WFRR library here.

ENDNOTES