64. The Delegation of the United States introduced the document which had been revised, as agreed by the last session of the Committee, and which focused on six major issues as follows:
65. The Delegation pointed out that the document provided a general framework but required substantial further work, in particular to develop the annexes concerning specific products, and asked the advice of the Committee on the general orientation of the document and how to proceed further in its elaboration. The Delegation also noted that the Drafting Group had recommended that because the horizontal issues of validation and suitability were not adequately defined, they should be addressed in plenary by the Committee.
66. Several delegations and the Observer from IDF expressed their appreciation to the Delegation of the United States and the Drafting Group for their constructive work and proposed that they should continue developing the document. The Delegation of Finland, expressing the views of the member states of the European Union, and some delegations pointed out that the current document did not fully reflect the conclusions of the Drafting Group, especially as it had been agreed that the code would address food suitability as well as safety, and that aspect was not included in the current text. It should therefore be taken into account in its further development. They also stated that the definition of food suitability should be reviewed. The Delegation of New Zealand stated that the Code should be developed in the context of a risk-based approach, should refer the acceptable level of protection, and should focus first on principles specific to dairy products. The Delegation of Switzerland mentioned that the HACCP principles should be applied from the feeding of milking animals to the end product and the terms used in this standard should be consistent with those used in the General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms.
67. The Delegation of India expressed the view that the reference to the annexes should be reviewed and they should not be regarded as “additional” since they would refer to specific production conditions; in particular the reference to milking equipment and temperature control should not be generalized. The Delegation of Italy pointed out that the focus should not be on commercial sterility but on the control of the process, that physical and chemical contamination should also be addressed, and that requirements for hygienic production should not be targeted only to raw milk production.
68. The Delegation of France noted that only three annexes were currently mentioned whereas the Code covered all types of dairy production and that the relationship between the main body of the code and annexes would need to be clarified after they had been developed and proposed to submit a list of annexes to be included in the Code. The Delegation of the United States indicated that the intention was to develop a comprehensive set of annexes to cover all milk and milk products, that the document needed further consideration as to its organization and that the input of all interested countries would be useful in the process, in order to present a revised text for consideration by the next session.
69. The Committee agreed that the general approach in the framework document was appropriate for the further development of the Code. The United Kingdom delegation urged delegations which had not yet submitted comments on the document (CX/FH 99/5) to do so as soon as possible.
Status of the Proposed Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Milk and Milk Products
70. The Committee agreed to return the Proposed Draft Code to Step 3 for redrafting, including development of specific annexes, by the United States with the assistance of a Drafting Group in the light of the comments received and the discussions at the current session, and to circulate it for comments prior to the next session.
