Article 5 of the Saudi Food Law

This article sets a rule that guides the Food and Drug Authority when it exercises its power under Article 4 to issue technical regulations and standard specifications for food. When issuing these documents or updating them, the Authority must take international food standard specifications into account.

International standard specifications, under the definition in Article 1, are food standard specifications issued by internationally recognized organizations and bodies.

What does this mean in practice?

• Saudi food rules are built with regard to what is practiced internationally, not in isolation from it.
• Bringing specifications closer to international references makes it easier to deal in imported and exported food.
• The text uses the word "takes into account," so it does not provide that international specifications apply automatically in the Kingdom, and the binding reference remains what the Authority issues.

Article 6 complements this provision, as the Authority adopts the principle of risk analysis in approving and updating regulations and specifications. In this way the Authority's methodology combines reliance on international references with scientific risk assessment.