18. The Commission considered the definitions presented to it in the Report of the ad hoc Working Group of the Codex Committee on General Principles. The Report of the Working Group is contained in Appendix VI to this Report. The Working Group had taken into consideration government comments on this topic received during the past year. The definitions given below refer to the field of work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and comprise only those definitions of terms necessary for an understanding of the General Principles of the Codex Alimentarius. In accepting these definitions, the Commission emphasized that they were not intended for governments to use in their national food legislation.
‘Food’ means any substance, whether processed, semi-processed or raw, which is intended for human consumption, and includes drink, chewing gum and any substance which has been used in the manufacture, preparation or treatment of ‘food’ but does not include cosmetics or tobacco or substances used only as drugs.1
‘Food additives’ and ‘contaminants’. The Commission recommended that the Codex Committee on Food Additives should examine the government comments which had been received on the draft definition proposed by that Committee and should prepare revised definitions of a broader nature, including contaminants, which would be suitable for the purposes of the Codex Alimentarius. Such definitions might include matters not the specific responsibility of the Committee.
‘Pesticide residues’. The Commission recommended that the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues should develop a definition for pesticide residues in the light of comments which had been received on “Definitions of Terms”, document SP 10/31.
‘Labelling’ and ‘presentation’ includes the label and any written, printed or graphic matter relating to, describing and accompanying the food.
‘Label’ includes any tag, brand, mark, pictorial or other descriptive matter, written, printed, stencilled, marked, embossed or impressed on, or attached to, a container of food.
‘Container’ means any form of packaging of food for sale as a single item, whether by completely or partially enclosing the food, and includes wrappers and confining bands.
‘Food hygiene’. The Commission decided that the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene should be requested to define ‘food hygiene’ for the purposes of the General Principles of the Codex Alimentarius in its widest sense and irrespective of whether the Committee would be concerned with all aspects of the definition in its work.
The Commission recommended that any definitions required for use in Standards by Codex Committees should be prepared by the Committee concerned. The Codex Committee on General Principles would be responsible for reconciling any differences among conflicting definitions of the same term.
19. The Commission examined the recommendations of the Working Party on Rules of Procedure and Related Matters in respect of paragraph 4 of the General Principles of the Codex Alimentarius. After discussing the meaning of full acceptance of a Codex Standard the Commission made certain revisions to the draft proposal of the Working Party and agreed to invite government comments on the revised text of paragraph 4 of the General Principles of the Codex Alimentarius given below. The Secretariat was requested to forward government comments on this subject to the Chairman of the Codex Committee on General Principles so that this matter could be examined by that Committee at its next session and recommendations submitted by the Committee to the Fifth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
TEXT OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO PARAGRAPH 4 OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION
A Codex standard may be accepted by a country in respect of trade and distribution of the product concerned, whether imported or home-produced, within its territorial jurisdiction in the following ways:
Full acceptance
Full acceptance means that the country concerned will ensure that a product - whether imported or home-produced - to which the standard applies would be permitted to be distributed freely within its territorial jurisdiction under the description laid down in the standard, only if it complies with all the relevant requirements of the standard. It also means that the distribution of the product would not be hindered by any legal provisions in the country concerned relating to the health of the consumer or to other food standards matters.
Target acceptance
Target acceptance means that the country concerned will accept the standard after a stated number of years and will meanwhile not hinder within its territorial jurisdiction the distribution of products conforming to the standard by any legal provisions in the country concerned relating to the health of the consumer or to other food standards matters.
Acceptance with a declaration of more stringent requirements
Acceptance with a declaration of more stringent requirements means that a country will include in its acceptance full details of all the requirements which are more stringent than those included in the standard concerned.
A country unable to accept the standard in any of the ways mentioned above should indicate:
whether products conforming to the standard may be distributed freely within its territorial jurisdiction;
which provisions of the standard it is prepared to accept in any of the ways mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) above;
in what ways its present or proposed requirements differ from the standard.
20. The Commission agreed with the recommendation of the ad hoc Working Group of the Codex Committee on General Principles that “General Principles of Food Legislation” (SP 10/30 - GPFL) should be sent to governments for comments, particularly on the following points:
as to whether the reporting of their legislation was correct, in order that a final, correct version of the document might be prepared;
whether there were basic principles fundamental to the establishment of their legislation which had not been brought out in the document;
whether there were provisions of a general nature in their legislation which were not brought out in the document.
The Commission further agreed with the ad hoc Working Group that the replies of governments, together with a paper prepared by the Secretariat on various general problems encountered in the work of Codex Committees and a paper on the necessary basic provisions for food legislation, should be submitted to the next session of the Codex Committee on General Principles.
