SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1963. Through adoption of food standards, codes of practice, and other guidelines developed by its committees, and by promoting their adoption and implementation by governments, Codex seeks to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.

The Terms of Reference of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) are:

(a) to draft basic provisions on food hygiene applicable to all food;

(b) to consider, amend if necessary and endorse provisions on hygiene prepared by Codex commodity committees and contained in Codex commodity standards, and

(c) to consider, amend if necessary, and endorse provisions on hygiene prepared by Codex commodity committees and contained in Codex codes of practice unless, in specific cases, the Commission has decided otherwise, or

(d) to draft provisions on hygiene applicable to specific food items or food groups, whether coming within the terms of reference of a Codex commodity committee or not;

(e) to consider specific hygiene problems assigned to it by the Commission;

(f) to suggest and prioritize areas where there is a need for microbiological risk assessment at the international level and to develop questions to be addressed by the risk assessors; and,

(g) to consider microbiological risk management matters in relation to food hygiene and in relation to risk assessment.

(The term “hygiene” includes, where necessary, microbiological specifications for food and associated methodology.)

The CCFH is hosted by the United States.

Issues To Be Discussed at the Public Meeting

The following items from the agenda for the 56th Session of the CCFH will be discussed during the public meeting:

• Matters referred by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and/or other Codex Subsidiary Bodies to the Committee.
  • Overview of definitions of ready-to-eat foods in Codex texts.
• Matters arising from international organizations (including the Joint Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessments (JEMRA)).
• Proposed revision ofthe Guidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of pathogenic Vibrio species in seafood (CXG 73-2010).
• Alignment of Codex texts developed by CCFH with the revisedGeneral principles of food hygiene (CXC 1-1969).
• Proposed draft revision of theGuidelines on the application of general principles of food hygiene to the control of viruses in food (CXG 79-2012).
• Discussion paper on the revision of theCode of practice on food allergen management for food business operators (CXC 80-2020).
• Discussion paper on the revision of theCode of practice for the processing and handling of quick frozen foods (CXC 8-1976).
• Other business and future work.
  • New work/Forward workplan (Proposals in reply to CL 2026/22-FH).

Public Meeting

At the October 29, 2026, public meeting, agenda items will be described and attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions and offer comments. Written comments may be offered at the meeting or sent to U.S. Delegate Dr. Benjamin Warren, Benjamin.warren@fda.hhs.gov and uscodex@usda.gov. Written comments should state that they relate to activities of the 56th Session of the CCFH.

Additional Public Notification

Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy development is important. Consequently, the U.S. Codex Office will announce this Federal Register publication on-line through the USDA Codex web page located at: www.usda.gov/​codex.

(Authority: 19 U.S.C. 2578; Pres. Proc. 6780; 7 CFR part 2.602.)

91 FR 62458