Source:  Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 5/25/10

The OIE World Assembly of Delegates said Monday at a forum during the organization's 78th annual general session in Paris that the public and private sectors should work together to harmonize standards in international live animal and meat trade.

The body said private standards, which proliferated over the last two decades to meet consumers' growing interest in production systems, food safety and animal welfare, has raised concerns such as lack of scientific justification, transparency and fairness associated with certifications.

Michael Robach, vice president of corporate food safety and regulatory affairs at Cargill, told attendees of the forum that the resulting duplication of efforts and a spread of related auditing systems could be detrimental to public certification, but there are ways that public and private standards could co-exist and complement each other.

"The food industry recognizes the critical importance of the work undertaken by the OIE and the Codex Alimentarius, and has started to take steps which better align standard and private certification schemes with existing public standards," he said, as quoted in OIE's news release.

Codex Alimentarius, International Plant Protection Convention and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) are officially recognized by the World Trade Organization Sanitary and PhytoSanitary Agreement.

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