The 51st session of Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) was held in Jinan, capital city of Shandong province, on March 25, offering an international exchange platform to have a discussion on the issues of food additives standards.

Supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, the Codex Committee on Food Additives is an international organization established in 1963.

It is responsible for making international standards for additives such as for its functions, maximum amount, labels and quality standards.

The annual sessions of CCFA is held in March every year for nine days. This year's event attracted around 320 experts from 50 member countries in the CCFA and more than 30 other international organizations.

Lu Jiang, the director of China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSR), delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony and said that the Chinese government has still been giving priority to food safety.

To help promote international codex standards for food, China applied to host the CCFA conference in 2006 and has become the first Asian country to host the conference for the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).

According to Lu, as a national food safety technical support institution, the CFSR is playing a leading role in food safety risk monitoring, food safety risk assessment and food safety standard formulation in recent years.

Sun Bin, the deputy mayor of Jinan city, also stressed that food safety is one of the common global challenges, which concerns everyone's health and safety. Jinan pays much attention to food safety and the supervision of food additives, he added.

Additionally local governments have been put on alert to monitor excessive chemical residues, toxic contamination, the abuse of additives and sales of substandard or counterfeit food products.

As the largest international conference held in Jinan city, the event plays an important role in promoting the city's reputation, boosting its exhibition industry and further fueling the growth of new drivers in the city.

The 39-50th CCFA conference was held in China's Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Hong Kong, Xi'an in Shaanxi province, Macao and Xiamen in Fujian province.

The 51st session of Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) is held in Jinan on March 25, attracting around 320 experts from 50 member countries, the European Union and more than 30 international organizations. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sun Bin, the deputy mayor of Jinan city, delivers a speech at the 51st sessions of Codex Committee on Food Additives on March 25. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]