What is the purpose of IPFSAPH?

IPFSAPH was developed to:

• Provide a reliable means of accessing official information on food safety, animal and plant health relevant to the SPS Agreement; and
• Facilitate cross-cutting queries (i.e. do more than just access data sets of standard setting bodies and the WTO).

The portal's goal is to facilitate trade in food and agriculture products and support the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement by providing a reliable single access point for authorized international and national information across the sectors of food safety, animal and plant health.

This cross-sectoral approach to information management supports an integrated approach to biosecurity, and helps to avoid information gaps resulting from the dispersal of data sets across diverse organizations.

Who developed, operates and finances IPFSAPH?

IPFSAPH is a joint undertaking between a number of SPS-recognized standard-setting organizations and international agencies. It was developed by FAO in association with Codex Alimentarius, the IPPC Secretariat and OIE.

To date, funding for development and operation has come from FAO, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF). A small team based at FAO is responsible for the day-to-day operation, management and maintenance of the portal.

Who are the intended users?

IPFSAPH is targeted at individuals and institutions with an interest in food safety, animal and plant health. This could include individuals in:

• National government agencies and bodies such as:
  • Agriculture or health ministries/departments
  • Biosecurity agencies
  • WTO inquiry points and notification authorities
  • Standards organizations
  • Export promotion agencies
• National scientific and private sector institutions such as:
  • National research institutes and universities
  • Industry associations
  • Large producers, exporters and traders
• International and regional organizations and bodies such as:
  • FAO, OECD, OIE, WHO and WTO
  • Secretariats for international agreements (e.g. IPPC and CBD)
  • Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC) and Mercosur

What types of information does IPFSAPH contain?

IPFSAPH contains official information related to food safety, animal and plant health. It includes nearly 50 relevant data sets, owned and managed by different organizations, and comprises approximately 35,000 records (and expanding) linked to the following types of content:

• International and national standards, official guidelines and recommended codes of practice
• National laws and regulations
• Trade notifications
• Maximum residue limits
• Risk analyses (including from the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the Joint Expert Meeting on Risk Assessment (JEMRA), and the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR))
• National contact points for international organizations and agreements such as the Codex Alimentarius, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and WTO SPS Agreement
• Supporting documentation such as evaluations, reports and standard specifications

What language are documents available in?

Documents included in IPFSAPH are available in their original language. In cases where the language of a record is one other than English, French or Spanish, summaries are provided in one of these languages. The site is navigable in English, French and Spanish.

Where does information in IPFSAPH come from?

Data and information in the portal comes from over 45 different sources including:

• International organizations such as the Codex Alimentarius, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat, World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and World Trade organization (WTO)
• Regional organizations such as the European Union and North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO)
• National governments and organizations such as Belize, the Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards

How up-to-date is information in IPFSAPH?

Content is monitored and updated on an ongoing basis, and new data sets are added as they become available. As far as possible the portal utilises web services technology to harvest data from external sources.

The Regulatory Framework

Some of the binding international legal instruments relevant to food safety, animal and plant health include:

International Instruments

• Standard setting instruments
  • Codex Alimentarius
  • International Plant Protection Convention
  • World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
• WTO-SPS Agreement
• WTO-TBT Agreement
• Convention on Biological Diversity (UNEP)               
• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the CBD
• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
• Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (PIC)
• The Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention

Regional Instruments 

• European Union's legislative framework
  • EC Directive on GMOs  -- Directive 2001/18/EC (Deliberate Release of GMOs into the Environment)
  • Novel Food Regulation  -- Regulation 258/97/EC (Concerning Novel Food and Novel Food Ingredients)
  • Proposed Regulation on Genetically Modified Food and Feed 
  • Forest reproductive materials  -- Council Directive 1999/105/EC
  • Decisions on the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) -- Decision 2001/8/EC and 2001/9/EC
• Other Regional Instruments
  • The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease
  • Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
  • Bern Convention

Soft Law instruments 

• OECD - Safety Consideration for Biotechnology (1992)
• OECD Task Force for Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds
• OECD Scheme for the Certification of Forest Reproductive Materials 
• FAO International Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries
• Code of Conduct for the Import and Release of Exotic Biological Control Agents 
• Code of Conduct on Biotechnology as it relates to Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
• UNIDO Code of Conduct for the Release of Organisms into the Environment 
• IMO Guidelines for the Control and Management of Ship's Ballast Water to Minimize the Transfer of Harmful Aquatic Organisms and Pathogens 
• ICES Code of Practice on the Introductions and Transfer of Marine Organisms 
  

For more information, please contact us at: IPFSAPH@fao.org