ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S. — The American Feed Industry Association’s (AFIA) President and Chief Executive Officer Joel G. Newman, who attended Codex Alimentarius Commission meetings in Rome, Italy, the week of July 2, said the focus on food safety and science has prevailed with the commission.

Adoption of scientifically-based maximum residue limits (MRLs) for ractopamine is a testament to that, AFIA said. Ractopamine is a safe partitioning feed additive that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration several years ago.

“AFIA applauds those nations that voted to uphold the core science-based principles of Codex,” Newman said. “It was my pleasure to participate on the U.S. Codex delegation.

“This vote, only the third in the 49-year history of Codex, was much bigger than ractopamine. It was about Codex committing to their well-established, science-based food safety principles and not letting individual countries use their legislative and/or social factors to impede the process.”