[1] Its texts are developed and maintained by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), a body established in early November 1961 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
[4] However, several nations adopt the Codex Alimentarius in their own regulations, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for purposes of food safety, refers to the Codex Alimentarius Sanitary and Phytosanitary practice codes in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) for member countries.
[citation needed] The Codex Alimentarius is published in the six official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian.
[3] In a 2018 publication, the CAC stated that: "Codex has at times been criticized as slow to complete its work, but developing food standards and compiling them as a code that is credible and authoritative requires extensive consultation.
"[11][12] The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has said that the Guidelines call "for labelling that contains information on maximum consumption levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements".
[13] The 2003 International Commission of the Future of Food and Agriculture, convened by Italian politician Claudio Martini and chaired by anti-globalization activist Vandana Shiva, issued several manifestos,[14] including the Manifesto on the Future of Food, which contended that "bureaucracies like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Codex Alimentarius have codified policies designed to serve the interests of global agribusiness above all others, while actively undermining the rights of farmers and consumers".