Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene (CCMPH)

When the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) established the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) in 1963, it tasked the new committee with making recommendations on the subject of meat hygiene, including microbiological standards. By 1971, however, the Codex Committee on Meat (CCM), which had been dealing with a Code of hygienic practice for fresh meat, had concluded there was a need for a special Codex committee to be set up for the purpose of addressing this issue. Hosted by New Zealand, the new Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene (CCMH) was established to “elaborate worldwide standards and/or codes of practice as may seem appropriate for meat hygiene, excluding poultry meat.” 

The Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene has been adjourned four times.  

At CAC11 in 1976, following the adoption of the Code of hygienic practice for fresh meat and the Code of ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection of slaughter animals, the Committee was adjourned sine die only for it to be reactivated at the following CAC12 in 1978 when   

the Committee was asked to look into a code on ante-mortem and post-mortem judgement of slaughter animals and meat, and a code of hygienic practice for the inspection of game. By 1983, sufficient work had been done on those codes of practice for the CCMH to be adjourned again at CAC15 in 1983. 

In 1989, CAC18 reactivated in order to revise and update its four codes of practice. This coincided with the modernization of the meat industry and meat hygiene and with the adoption of new modes of risk analysis including the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system. The two codes on ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection and judgement were combined and the remaining two codes updated. In 1993, the CCMH was adjourned sine die for the third time.  

In 2001, CAC24 reactivated the CCMH again and renamed it as the Codex Committee on Meat and Poultry Hygiene (CCMPH), although it would continue to be referred to as the Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene. CCMPH worked on a new Code of hygienic practice for meat (CXC 58-2005). When the new code was adopted in 2005, the CCMPH was adjourned for the fourth time.