The National Health Federation (NHF) returned again to Asia in mid-March 2014, to attend the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) Forty-Sixth Session in Hong Kong, China.   Last year's CCFA meeting, held amidst the death-smog of Beijing, yielded a great victory as NHF helped persuade the Committee to reduce neurotoxic aluminum by 50% in many food products and completely eliminate it in others.

NHF's goal was the same this year: To eliminate more aluminum, and aspartame too, particularly based on a plethora of new studies on this killer-sweetener, some of which called for "urgent re-evaluation of aspartame"  by international regulatory agencies (such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission) and to consider re-evaluation an urgent matter of public health.   So when the Codex Chairman parroted the party line ad nauseam, "We have full acceptance of aspartame by JECFA . This meeting is not about safety. Aspartame's safety is a Global standard in a Global marketplace," it was incredibly difficult to endure this bureaucratic ignorance.

Later, in a side admission to me by a country delegate, NHF learned that one person was threatened with having his office "torched" if he spoke out against aspartame at this CCFA meeting!  Regardless of whether this would have happened or not, NHF takes its share of risks in representing you. In a room of hundreds of country and industry delegates, NHF is oftentimes your only Voice for health and health freedom – literally.

At this meeting, you were well represented against International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) such as the Calorie Control Council (aspartame group), the International Sweeteners Association (ISA)(another aspartame front group), the International Food Additives Council (aluminum industry), and others.  

Unfortunately, the CCFA meeting was again marked by greed fueling industries' bottom line while World trade remained unfettered as most country delegates joined in a "Wall Street Wolf" frenetic elevation of commerce over health, despite Codex's stated goal of protecting the consumer via food safety.

    Codex Alimentarius (Latin for "Food Code") opted to continue approving its Member States' (and, importantly, their industries') export of health-killing goods like aspartame- and aluminum-laden products, among other additives.  Even additives to food additives – all at the expense of your health.

The bustling Hong Kong harbor is the quintessential image of trade and the nicer aspect of what CCFA's unspoken but clearly evident goal is: greed-based exports, much of it unfit for human consumption, with World Trade remaining open to neatly "harmonized" countries, which, in a nutshell, means loss of national sovereignty.

CCFA's hot debate swirled around the infamous Note 161, a footnote to the aspartame food-additive standards, guaranteeing every country's right to decide whether to permit the sale of toxic aspartame and at what levels.  Those industries and their country supporters (U.S., Canada, Australia) who love aspartame view Note 161 as a barrier to their Nazi-like plans for world-market conquest.  "Get rid of Note 161 and the World is ours, ours," you can just hear them cackling.  Since NHF supports the right of countries to choose, we opposed these cacklers.

Unfortunately, Note 161 was destined for oblivion as the European Union agreed to a compromise permitting world-wide sales of aspartame-laden products under certain, prescribed circumstances (for energy-reduced foods and foods with no added sugar only).  Even those limits were too much for greedy U.S., Australia, Canada, and its aspartame-industry concubines, who demanded no restrictions whatsoever.  The debate over Note 161 continues.

The delegates were only allowed to comment on the technical necessity of food additives – not their safety. Why is aspartame technically necessary when a safe substitute could be employed? NHF President Scott Tips argued that "it's about health and safety, not World trade," to which Physical Working Group (pWG) Chairman Honigfort replied, "We have full acceptance of aspartame by JECFA. This meeting is not about safety. Aspartame's safety is a Global standard in a Global marketplace."

Time and again Scott Tips argued, "We can use alternative sweeteners like stevia." But Note 161 was the key issue and the aspartame proponents were adamant that each country not have the right to decide on the sweetener issue but that we reach agreement harmonizing aspartame's use globally.

Since Codex has considered aspartame "safe" based upon JECFA's ignorant, outdated assessment, NHF changed tactics fighting to lower the maximum allowable level of aspartame.  Despite repeated challenges by Scott Tips, the toxin's defenders prevailed, relying upon JECFA's "safety" assessment as their shield.  NHF has argued at nearly every meeting that unbiased science from panels other than JECFA must be admitted to the Codex process. Even plenary-session Chairman Dr. Junshi Chen admitted that JECFA needs help getting more up-to-date studies to base their decisions upon.

ISA argued that we "need to find consensus to move forward as we have had international trade problems over this …. The bigger issue [disregarding health notwithstanding] is not moving forward." When Scott Tips brought up the fact that we cannot just rubber stamp these standards for the sake of expediency, "moving forward," and keeping World trade open at the expense of health, this wisdom was sacrificed in the wake of commerce chugging along to the next port with its deadly cargo.

    The bold truth is that there are untapped markets and populations to consume these poisonous additives first and then pay into the medical system later with their loss of health, even their lives.

      CCFA also discussed acceptance of a "tentative" group of food additives like Advantame.  As the debate went on, JECFA admitted, "We have a real need to receive updated data on these substances." NHF joined an electronic working group that will meet throughout this year to discuss sweeteners like just-mentioned Advantame, Sweetmyx, and others, and to further debate the successor to Note 161.  Sweetmyx, which was recently approved for use in food and beverages, is an artificial sweetener to which PepsiCo holds the exclusive rights. Watch for variations on the theme as aspartame is now simply being rebranded as AminoSweet and other attractive names.  In the largest study of its kind, new research from Iowa State reveals aspartame's implication in increased heart-attack and stroke rates among women, occurring with two or more diet drinks daily in normally healthy, postmenopausal women.    

NHF was successful again this year in reducing and eliminating another aluminum food additive, finishing the work begun in Norway, and not selling out under pressure but firmly holding a steady course for health and health freedom – for you! Isn't it time you deepened the level of your commitment to your health and health freedom? Join us at www.thenhf.com and help to underwrite research, education, and our important Codex attendance by your donation at http://www.thenhf.com/page.php?id=19 It is your chance to make a difference to billions in the World.

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© 2014 Katherine Carroll

Greed Based Health CCFA HK 2014