Global Harmonization Initiative

The goal of the initiative is to ensure the global availability of safe and wholesome food products for all consumers.

To achieve this, undue barriers to free trade that masquerade as food safety protections must be vanquished. Such barriers include differences in regulations and legislation between countries globally. The international scientific community must, therefore, work towards achieving global consensus on the science underpinning food regulations and legislation.

This will be achieved through attainment of the following objectives:

1. Identifying relevant scientific organizations
2. Inviting and encouraging the participation of these scientific societies in the global harmonization initiative and inviting their members to join in this activity in their field of expertise.
3. Identifying relevant non-scientific stakeholders
4. Establishing effective communication between non-scientific and scientific organizations.
5. Inviting all stakeholders (organizations and individuals) to identify and submit key issues requiring attention.
6. Prioritizing key issues with the subsequent formation of working groups to draft white papers or consensus statements regarding the scientific validity of these issues.
7. Steering working groups to assess the best available evidence and discuss their findings with the scientific community, working towards building consensus.
8. Publishing results on a per issue basis in journals, magazines and newspapers.
9. Publishing collections of resulting consensus statements in book form.
10. Presenting results and participating in appropriate conferences.
11. Making results available to all stakeholders, particularly those responsible for developing or amending regulations and legislation, global communicators, risk managers and assessors.

All of these will be done in an open, transparent manner, to avoid bias or the appearance of bias, political or otherwise.