At the 31st session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, held from 30 June to 4 July 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland, the Commission adopted 35 new or revised Codex standards or related texts. These include the 'Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Animals' as well as two new annexes to the 'Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants', namely 'Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants Modified for Nutritional or Health Benefits' and 'Food Safety Assessment in Situations of Low-level Presence of Recombinant-DNA Plant Material in Food'. In addition, the Commission approved new work for the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling on 'Guidelines on Criteria for Methods for the Detection and Identification of Foods Derived from Biotechnology' and agreed to dissolve the Ad hoc Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology. See the report (ALINORM 08/31/REP), together with the agenda providing links to the meeting's documents, at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/archives.jsp?lang=en (in English, French and Spanish) or contact codex@fao.org for further information.