CODEX COMMITTEE ON METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND SAMPLING: AMENDMENTS TO THE PROCEDURAL MANUAL
4. The Committee noted that the Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) had undertaken work to revise the Principles for the Establishment or Selection of Codex Methods of Analysis and the Section of the Procedural Manual dealing with the relations between Codex Commodity Committees and General Subject Committees on the matter of methods of analysis and sampling. It was noted that this work was subsequent to recommendations made by the 11th Session of CCGP to relevant Codex Committees. The Committee agreed that the objective of such revisions was to ensure that the Procedural Manual contained only matters relating to the Commission’s procedures; guidelines or other recommendations that were better directed to Member governments should be transferred from the Procedural Manual, revised as appropriate, and after adoption by the Commission, included in the Codex Alimentarius.
5. The Committee noted that the proposals of the CCMAS in this regard were at a relatively early stage of discussion and expressed the wish to consider them at a later stage after further deliberation by the Committee concerned.
SPECIAL TREATMENT OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
6. The Committee recalled the recommendation made it its last session that the Code of Ethics for International Trade in Foods was the appropriate instrument for developing statements relating to the special treatment of developing countries in the application of food standards[3]. The Committee requested the Commission to give positive consideration to its proposal to initiate the early revision of the Code of Ethics for this purpose. Several Delegations expressed the need for this matter to be urgently discussed at the Committee’s next session.
FOOD SAFETY OBJECTIVES
7. The Committee noted that the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) had requested approval of the Commission to undertake the elaboration of Guidelines for the Judgement of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures associated with Food Inspection and Certification Systems.[4] The proposal included consideration of the concept of Food Safety Objectives.
8. Several Delegations were of the opinion that the concept of Food Safety Objectives and its linkage with the concept of the determination of the Appropriate Level of Protection were general matters that should be discussed by the CCGP and other relevant Codex Committees, for example the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene where work in the same area had also been initiated. Other Delegations pointed out that the Executive Committee had approved the idea that the concepts in this regard should first be developed by CCFICS in regard to food control for import and export. The CCFICS would also suggest how a systematic approach might be developed and the application of these concepts would then be taken up at an appropriate time by other relevant Committees including the CCGP.[5] It was also pointed out that the application of these concepts at a technical level would probably differ in the different fields covered by specialist Codex Committees.
9. The Committee agreed that the matter was one of importance to the work of all Codex Committees and agreed to consider the general aspects of the development and application of food safety objectives at its next session.
