The Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) will hold a meeting on September 18–22, 2023 in Rome, Italy to discuss food attribution, analytical methods, and indicators of viruses in foods.

The JEMRA meeting was requested by the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) to provide scientific advice to inform the review of Codex Guidelines on the Application of General Principles of Food Hygiene to The Control of Viruses in Food (CXG 79-2012). The purpose of the guidelines is to provide direction on how to prevent or minimize the presence of human enteric viruses in foods, especially hepatitis A and norovirus.

To support the update of the guidance, CCFH requested JEMRA provide scientific advice on the following areas, giving priority to items 1, 3, and 4:

1. An up-to-date review of the foodborne viruses and relevant food commodities of highest public health concern
2. A review of the scientific evidence on prevention and intervention measures and the efficacy of interventions in the food continuum
3. A review of the analytical methods for relevant enteric viruses in food commodities
4. A review of scientific evidence on the potential utility of viral indicators or other indicators of contamination
5. A review of the various risk assessment models with a view towards constructing more applicable models for wide use among member countries, including a simplified risk calculator.