85. The Committee recalled that its 14th Session had considered the role of other legitimate factors and had agreed to ask relevant Committees to identify and clarify the relevant factors taken into account in their work, in the framework of risk analysis, as this would facilitate the general debate in the CCGP[12]. The conclusions of the Committee on Food Hygiene were presented in the working document and the discussions and conclusions of other committees that had met later were presented in an unnumbered CRD.
86. The Delegation of the Netherlands, supported by other delegations, stressed the importance of considering other legitimate factors in order to restore consumer confidence in food safety regulations; for this purpose, the scope of this question should be expanded to address issues such as animal welfare, consumer concerns and consumer choices, and the question should also be forwarded to the new Task Forces.
87. The Observer from Consumers International expressed the view that the consideration of other factors should not be limited to risk management, that it should be forwarded for consideration by other Codex Committees, including Food Labelling and the new Task Forces, and suggested that two separate lists should be prepared to distinguish the legitimate factors that were considered at the national and international level.
88. The Delegation of the United States, supported by other delegations, recalled that legitimate factors were limited by the second Statement of Principle and that factors which were not relevant to the protection of consumers' health and the promotion of fair practices in food trade were not within the mandate of Codex. The Delegation pointed out that societal choices were the responsibility of national governments and did not constitute risk management measures.
89. Some delegations pointed out that some of the factors identified by the Committees or in the working document should not be considered as 'other factors' since they were based on scientific information, especially Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Agricultural Practice, Good Veterinary Practice, and methods of analysis and sampling. The Observer from ALA indicated that the scope and use of the factors listed by different Committees should be defined and the CCGP should determine whether they were legitimate on this basis.
90. Some delegations stressed the need for further clarification from the individual committees on how other factors were integrated into the risk management process, especially on the weight they were given in the decision process; the replies received so far from the Committees were not precise enough. In this regard, the Committee noted that the Committee on Pesticide Residues had not yet addressed this question and some delegations proposed that the CCNFSDU should also consider this question as its activities included certain aspects of risk analysis.
91. In considering the proposed criteria for the inclusion of other legitimate factors within the Codex context (para 34), the Committee agreed to the amendments proposed by the Delegation of Canada, as follows:
In the 5th indent, the incidence of other factors should be documented 'including the rationale for their integration' as this allowed for further clarification of the process.
92. Several delegations sought clarification on the status of the examples presented as a list in para. 33 of the working document, and questioned whether the Committee should proceed further, proposing that further work should be deferred until all relevant committees had considered this question. Other delegations pointed out that the work of individual Committees was useful but that CCGP was responsible for providing general guidance on this issue. Some delegations pointed out that the assignment given to the Committees was not to develop exhaustive lists but to determine the legitimacy of such factors in the framework of Codex.
93. The Secretariat indicated that the Committee had a specific mandate following its decision at the 13th Session, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risk Management and Food Safety, as endorsed by the 22nd Session of the Commission. The Medium-Term Plan for 1998-2002[13] approved by the Commission included the development of guidance on the identification, management, application and interpretation of other legitimate factors as defined in the second Statement of Principle. The examples described in the working document and summarized in the list (para. 33) were intended to facilitate discussion of general recommendations and the input of other Committees had been sought for this purpose. In addition these Committees were in the process of clarifying this question since they were considering the integration of risk analysis in their work.
94. It was recalled that the responsibility of the CCGP was to develop general guidance, a first draft of which was presented at the end of the document (para. 34). It was noted that the ongoing debate in the Committees responsible for risk analysis could assist the general discussion but that the Committee should proceed within its own mandate to develop general guidance. It was also clarified that until now, the debate concerned the factors taken into account in past and present work of the Committees and the request of CCGP had not therefore been addressed to the new Task Forces, which reported to the Executive Committee and the Commission.
95. The Committee agreed that it should proceed with its consideration of this issue at its next session on the basis of the current text, taking into account the amendments made at the current session. The conclusions of the committees involved in risk management (including CCFH, CCFAC, CCRVDF and CCPR) would also be taken in account, with the understanding that these Committees might need to clarify further the integration of other factors in their work, as necessary. It was also agreed that the CCNFSDU should be invited to consider the integration of other legitimate factors in its activities involving risk analysis aspects. The Committee agreed that the Secretariat would develop draft general guidance based on paragraph 34 of the current document (CX/GP 00/7) and circulate the revised text for comments and consideration by the next session.
