BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. The Codex Trust Fund joint project of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), and Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan (AFSA) aim to develop national sanitary and phytosanitary standards, the FAO office in Azerbaijan told Trend.
“FAO has been working together with AFSA to address the food safety issues since the establishment of the agency in 2018. FAO has increased its coordination with WHO in supporting AFSA from 2020 onward,” the source said.
According to FAO, the project was developed in cooperation between WHO, and AFSA s to support the establishment of a well-organized national Codex structure, increasing the capacities of the technical staff to utilize Codex tools and documents and to be able to more effectively participate in the international Codex platform to reflect national realities and considerations.
Another field of this joint cooperation is to support the strengthening of the One Health Approach, which considers Human, Animal, Plant and Environmental Health in unison and aims to bring together all stakeholders involved in monitoring and working in the field of these issues in greater coordination, FAO added.
“FAO has conducted an initial survey of Antibiotic Use among farmers, veterinarians, and pharmacies which provide drugs used in animals, while AFSA and WHO have jointly organized Antibiotic Resistance (AMR) Awareness Raising week together in November 2021,” the source said.
Meanwhile, FAO Representative in Azerbaijan Melek Cakmak told recently that FAO, together with the AFSA, and WHO have created a joint secretariat. New food safety standards have been created as part of this work.
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