Singapore’s National Codex Office (NCO) was established by SFA as a dedicated office to support Singapore’s participation in Codex meetings. The NCO ensures coordination, consistency, and alignment of priorities for Singapore’s positions on topics that may span different Codex Committees. It facilitates communication among the NCC, Codex Secretariat, Codex Committee Leads and Focal Points.
The key roles of the NCO are:
- To support SFA in developing positions on Codex matters
- To conduct stakeholder consultations when formulating positions for Codex
- To track the adoption of Codex standards by SFA/Singapore
- To facilitate the development of Codex Standards that are of interest or relevance to Singapore
As food safety is a joint responsibility between the government, industry, and consumers, SFA engages relevant stakeholders before attending Codex meetings and contributing inputs to Codex’s requests. Singapore also maintains friendly relations with other Codex Member States and Observers and engages them on Codex topics that are of mutual interest. This collaborative approach helps to ensure that Singapore’s positions and priorities in international standard-setting discussions reflect a broad range of perspectives and expertise.
Singapore hosted the 22nd ASEAN Task Force for Codex (ATFC) virtually from 20-21 September 2023. The ATFC serves as a forum for ASEAN Member States to meaningfully engage in discussions on Codex issues which have identified to be of common interest and importance.