SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The Third Session of the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products reached the following conclusions:

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMISSION The Committee: - Recommended the adoption at Step 8 of the Draft General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms; Draft Revised Standards for Butter, Milkfat Products, Evaporated Milks, Sweetened Condensed Milks, Cheese, and Whey Cheese; and Draft Standards for Milk Powders and Cream Powders, and Cheeses in Brine (Appendices II & IV-XI); - Proposed to revise the Codex Standards for Whey Powders and Edible Casein Products (para.98); - Recommended to revoke the individual Cheese Standards for Cheshire, Limburger, Svecia, Butterkäse, Harzer Käse, Herrgårdsost, Hushållsost, Maribo, Fynbo, Romadur, Amsterdam, Leidse, Friese and Edelpilzkäse (para. 81); and - Invited the Commission to confirm: (a) that the most preferred method of the preservation of raw milk was refrigeration; and (b) its approval of the use of the enzymatic activators of the Lactoperoxidase System in accordance with the Guidelines for the Preservation of Raw Milk by Use of the Lactoperoxidase System (CAC/GL 13-1991) and based on the advice of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, where refrigeration was not possible; and recommended that the Commission make a clear statement to the effect that the use of hydrogen peroxide in a manner not consistent with the above Guidelines was no longer acceptable (para. 96). OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE COMMISSION The Committee: - Returned the Draft Standard for Unripened Cheese to Step 6 for redrafting by the IDF incorporating provisions for cream cheese (para. 79); - Returned Proposed Draft Standards for Individual Cheeses, Processed Cheese, Cream, Dairy Spreads, and Fermented Milk Products to Step 3 for redrafting by the IDF in collaboration with the relevant Working Groups (paras. 84-88); - Accepted the wording of the hygiene provision recommended by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene to be included in all standards for milk products (para. 6); - Agreed to include the validated methods as recommended by the IDF/ISO/AOAC Working Group on Methods of Analysis and Sampling in the methods of analysis sections of the relevant standards (para. 91); - Agreed to the usefulness of the criteria for the elaboration and revocation of individual standards for cheeses in the future deliberations (para. 82); - Agreed to advise other Committees that might use terms related to the dairy terms, that in recognizing the usefulness of the General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms throughout the Codex system, the Committee decided not to limit the Scope of the Standard to labelling and to delete the term “in Labelling” from the title and the terms “label” and “labelling” in other relevant sections (para. 10); - Agreed to refer the following to the Codex Committee on Food Labelling in addition to those provisions which require endorsement according to the Codex Procedure: - relevant provisions of the Draft General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms (paras. 7, 16 & 20); - decisions on the common labelling provisions of milk product standards (Appendix III), especially whether or not the milkfat content should always be declared or whether such a declaration should only be made in the case where the consumer would be deceived by its omission (paras. 24 & 29); and - exemption of the declaration of date of minimum durability for non-retail packages of whole ripened firm, hard and extra-hard cheese which are not mould/soft-ripened and not intended to be purchased as such by the final consumer; and the declaration of the date of manufacture in its stead (para. 28); and - Agreed to refer to the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants in addition to those provisions which require endorsement according to the Codex Procedure: - request to update the Codex Inventory of Processing Aids and to evaluate calcium chloride and other substances used as processing aids in the dairy industry for their inclusion in the Inventory (paras. 27 & 66); - need for clearer guidance for Codex Committees on whether or not to include provisions for processing aids in standards (para. 46); and - extension of the approval of pimaricin (natamycin) to sliced, cut, shredded and grated cheese (para. 70).