Fifty years ago, two United Nations organizations, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, formed the Codex Alimentarius Commission with the objective of incorporating the food safety work of FAO, WHO and other international bodies into a unified program. The first session of the Commission was attended by 120 participants from 30 countries and 16 international organizations. Today Codex convenes food safety regulatory officials from 184 member countries, together with industry and consumer observer organizations, to develop standards, guidelines and Codes of Practice ("Codex text") designed to ensure that food that is on world markets is safe for everyone everywhere. It covers a huge range of topics from good hygiene practices and HACCP implementation to residue limits for chemicals in food to the use of testing and risk assessment in food safety control programs. Once adopted, Codex standards are used both by governments and industries around the world. Over the past 50 years Codex has evolved in an increasingly transparent and inclusive way to meet ongoing and emerging challenges in protecting consumer health and ensuring fair practices in food trade. Codex standards are referenced in the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS Agreement) as the benchmark standards for food in international trade and they serve as a basis for national legislation in many countries. Past and present members of the Executive body of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and representatives of member countries or organizations will reflect on its achievements and challenges and consider the way forward to ensure that Codex continues to provide valuable advice to governments in improving their food safety standards.