Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has as goal to promote global sustainable development of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and food production and security, quality, and safety as well as the related socioeconomic issues. Within FAO, the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department is responsible for the work related to food safety, including toxicological evaluations of chemicals used or present in food and hosts the Secretariat of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) under the Joint FAO/World Health Organization (WHO) Food Standards Program. The main purposes of this Program are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) is an international expert scientific committee that serves as an independent body that performs risk assessments of food additives, contaminants, naturally occurring toxicants, and residues of veterinary drugs in food. Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) is an international expert body that performs safety evaluation of pesticide and recommends safe levels of residues in foods. FAO and WHO, through JECFA and JMPR, provide scientific support to the CAC and member countries as well as the basis for the development of principles for the safety assessment of chemicals in food that are consistent with current thinking on risk assessment and take account of recent developments in toxicology and other relevant scientific areas.