REVISION OF THE GUIDELINES FOR THE DESIGN OF CONTROL MEASURES FOR STREET VENDED FOODS IN AFRICA[8] (AGENDA ITEM 5)

24. The Committee was informed that the Commission at its 22nd Session had adopted the Guidelines at Step 8, with the amendment that the Scope should indicate that the Guidelines were intended for use in the Region of Africa. The Commission also requested the Committee to review the Guidelines in order to ensure conformity with the revised General Principles of Food Hygiene and its annex, the HACCP system, (ALINORM 97/37, para. 75).

25. In response to the Circular Letter, CL1998/16-AFRICA, comments were received from Kenya and South Africa. The document[9] for consideration represented the revised version in light of the Commission’s request and the comments received.

26. The Committee decided to consider the amendments proposed by Kenya and South Africa, and decided as follows:

Definitions

(i) The proposed definition for “Food handler” was not adopted because food handler was already defined in the General Principles of Food Hygiene.

(ii) Similarly the proposed definition for “Street vendors” was deemed to be covered by “Mobile vendor”, which was already in the Guidelines.

(iii) Clean water:

The Committee agreed to delete “where there is no reason to believe the water is contaminated”, but also agreed to insert after “matter” the clause “in an amount not harmful to human health....”.

Section 3.4.3.3

The Committee agreed with the proposal to adopt the text as was in the General Principles, but decided to indicate clearly that “soap” was among the facilities to be provided in washrooms.

Section 6.1.1

The Committee agreed to delete the proposed section requiring the immunization of food handlers against specific diseases.

Section 6.4

The Committee decided to delete the sentence, “The use of gloves is/not recommended”, because there were operations which might and might not require the wearing of gloves.

27. The Committee was satisfied that the Guidelines as revised was adequate for its intended use in the region of Africa. The Committee therefore agreed with the proposal of the Chairman to recommend the adoption of the Guidelines by the Commission at Step 8 by omiting Steps 6 and 7. The revised text of the Guidelines is attached to this report as Appendix II.