• The Codex Alimentarius (Latin for ‘food code’ or ‘food book’) is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. It was created in 1963 and the main purposes of the programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations. It is still work in progress.
  
  
• Codex does not create law but attempts to set International standards for products & ingredients to facilitate world trade. The standards are used by some countries to create their own legislation but European legislation is often in existence (often with tighter controls) before Codex standards are set. There are some cases where EU legislation is brought into line with Codex standards retrospectively, but in practice this does not happen often. Operators in countries with laxer legislation (eg the USA) may fear the affects of Codex Alimentarius standards on tightening their food controls.
  

There is a rumour circulating that Codex will come into force on December 31st 2009.
This rumour is incorrect. This date actually represents one of many implementation dates of the Food Supplements Directive and is nothing directly to do with Codex.
The text for the Codex Guidelines on Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements, which have been based closely on the European Directive—sharing some of its text verbatim—was ratified in July 2005 but is unlikely to finalised until around 2012 or 2013. It is only at this time it is likely to be used as the basis for national and regional laws in many parts of the world. To a large extent, Codex guidelines on food supplements are irrelevant to Europeans as they simply reflect the European laws on which they are based and it is the laws that ultimately affect our access to products, not the Codex guideline.

Misinformation about Codex
Some of the misinformation on Codex appears to be deliberately disseminated, while other parts are unwitting reproductions of the misinformation by concerned yet naive individuals. Among the common erroneous facts are:

• All nutrients (eg. vitamins and minerals) are to be considered toxins/poisons and are to be removed from all food because Codex prohibits the use of nutrients to ‘prevent, treat or cure any condition or disease’.
  
  
• All food (including organic) is to be irradiated, thus removing all ‘toxic’ nutrients from food (unless consumers can source their food locally).
  
  
• Nutrients allowed will be limited to a Positive List developed by Codex; it will include such ‘beneficial’ nutrients as fluoride (3.8 mg daily), sourced from industrial waste.
  
  
• All nutrients (eg. vitamins A, B, C, D, zinc and magnesium) that have any positive health impact on the body will be deemed illegal in therapeutic doses under Codex and are to be reduced to amounts negligible to health, with maximum limits set at 15% of the current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). You will not be able to obtain these nutrients in therapeutic doses anywhere in the world, even with a prescription.
  
  
• It will most likely be illegal to give any advice on nutrition (including in written articles posted online and in journals as well as oral advice to a friend, a family member or anyone).
  
  
• All dairy cows on the planet are to be treated with Monsanto's genetically engineered, recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH).
  
  
• All animals used for food are to be treated with potent antibiotics and exogenous growth hormones.
  
  
• Use of growth hormones and antibiotics will be mandatory on all livestock, birds and aquacultured species meant for human consumption.
  
  
• The worldwide introduction of unlabelled and deadly GMOs into crops, animals, fish and plants will be mandated.

The biggest threat we have in the UK is from the rules being set by EU in Brussels. Some nutrients will be lost. Maximum permitted levels will be set for Vitamins and Minerals in 2010/11 but at this moment in time the industry is hopeful that safety will dictate these levels.
Product information will also be restricted from 2010/11 –ie what a product does and is good for but this will not remove products from the market place. Tedious laws but not terminal for supplements.