Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU)

A Codex Committee on Dietetic Foods was established in 1966 under the chairmanship of Germany, following Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) decisions to extend work already being carried out by the Coordinating Committee for Europe.

In consultation with medical, nutritional and labelling experts, the Committee proceeded with the understanding that “dietetic foods are those foods which, by reason of their composition, meet a particular nutritive need of a person whose normal power of assimilation is restricted or for whom a particular effect is to be obtained by a controlled diet. They are foods and not medicines.”

In 1968, dietetic foods were redefined as “special foods for certain categories of healthy persons and also dietary foods,” which necessitated a name change to the Codex Committee for Foods for Special Dietary Uses. It wasn’t until 1983 that the Committee took on the nutritional aspects of Codex work and its terms of reference were broadened to include this additional work. The name-change to the Codex Committee for Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses came in 1987.