Thesis ID: CBB001567316

The History of International Food Safety Standards and the Codex Alimentarius (1955--1995) (2011)

unapi

Ramsingh, Brigit Lee Naida (Author)


Mazumdar, Pauline M. H.
Dacome, Lucia
University of Toronto


Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Advisor: Mazumdar, Pauline M. H., Dacome, Lucia.
Physical Details: 221 pp.
Language: English

Following the Second World War, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) teamed up to construct an international Codex Alimentarius (or "food code") in 1962. Inspired by the work of its European predecessor, the Codex Europaeus , these two UN agencies assembled teams of health professionals, government civil servants, medical and scientific experts to draft food standards. Once ratified, the standards were distributed to governments for voluntary adoption and implementation. By the mid-1990s, the World Trade Organization (WTO) identified the Codex as a key reference point for scientific food standards. The role of science within this highly political and economic organization poses interesting questions about the process of knowledge production and the scientific expertise underpinning the food standards. Standards were constructed and contested according to the Codex twin goals of: (1) protecting public health, and (2) facilitating trade. One recent criticism of Codex is that these two aims are opposed, or that one is given primacy over the other, which results in protectionism. Bearing these themes in mind, in this dissertation I examine the relationship between the scientific and the 'social' elements embodied by the Codex food standards since its inception after the Second World War. I argue that these attempts to reach scientific standards represent an example of coproduction--one in which the natural and social orders are produced alongside each other. What follows from this central claim is an attempt to characterize the pre-WTO years of the Codex through a case study approach. The narrative begins with a description of the predecessor regional group the Codex Europaeus , and then proceeds to key areas affecting human health: 1) food additives, 2) food hygiene, and 3) pesticides residues.

...More

Description Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 76/04(E), Oct 2015. Proquest Document ID: 1636266006.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001567316/

Similar Citations

Thesis Frohlich, Xaq Zachary; (2011)
Accounting for Taste: Regulating Food Labeling in the “Affluent Society,” 1945--1995 (/isis/citation/CBB001567293/)

Article François Dedieu; (2022)
Secrecies as Organized Ignorance: The Illusion of Knowledge in French Pesticide Regulation (/isis/citation/CBB517499623/)

Article Wylie, Caitlin Donahue; (2010)
Setting a Standard for a “Silent” Disease: Defining Osteoporosis in the 1980s and 1990s (/isis/citation/CBB001023976/)

Book Hardy, Anne Irmgard; (2015)
Salmonella Infections, Networks of Knowledge, and Public Health in Britain, 1880--1975 (/isis/citation/CBB001422654/)

Article Brinkmann, Sören; (2014)
Leite e modernidade: ideologia e políticas de alimentação na era Vargas (/isis/citation/CBB001420714/)

Article Andrada, Carlos A.; (2004)
Orígenes de la bromatología en Catamarca (/isis/citation/CBB000933590/)

Book Dehner, George; (2012)
Influenza: A Century of Science and Public Health Response (/isis/citation/CBB001252198/)

Thesis Janzen, Mark Ryan; (2010)
The Cranberry Scare of 1959: The Beginning of the End of the Delaney Clause (/isis/citation/CBB001567202/)

Book Levenstein, Harvey; (2012)
Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat (/isis/citation/CBB001210041/)

Article Palmer, Steven; Hochman, Gilberto; Arbex, Danieli; (2010)
Smallpox Eradication, Laboratory Visits, and a Touch of Tourism: Travel Notes of a Canadian Scientist in Brazil (/isis/citation/CBB001420472/)

Book Marcos Cueto; Theodore M. Brown; Elizabeth Fee; (2019)
The World Health Organization: A History (/isis/citation/CBB989887302/)

Chapter ANA MARTA GONZÁLEZ; (2016)
In Search of an Ethical Frame for the Provision of Health (/isis/citation/CBB918829364/)

Article Cueto, Marcos; (2008)
International Health, the Early Cold War and Latin America (/isis/citation/CBB000933073/)

Authors & Contributors
Cueto, Marcos
Dedieu, François
Janzen, Mark Ryan
Holmes, Matthew
Frohlich, Xaq Zachary
Wylie, Caitlin Donahue
Concepts
Public health
Food safety
Food and foods
Standards and standardization
Pesticides; insecticides
Food industry and trade
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
Modern
18th century
Places
United States
Brazil
Islands of the Pacific
Argentina
Latin America
France
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
UNICEF
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
United States. Food and Drug Administration
World Bank
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment