97) The Committee recalled that the draft standard had been prepared initially by the Codex Coordinating Committee for Asia, and forwarded to the CCFFP for further elaboration after its adoption at Step 5 by the Executive Committee in 1996.
98) The Committee was invited to focus the discussion especially on whether the Scope should be restricted to single material/ingredient; whether the standard should contain grades or only minimum requirements; how to deal with packaging; and the incorporation of new sections proposed by Malaysia. The Committee reviewed the standard section by section and made the following amendments.
99) The Delegation of Malaysia proposed to limit the Scope to single ingredient products only. The Delegation of Thailand pointed out that this standard should not be limited to high protein products only. Most Delegations supported the elaboration of a more general Standard as there were various types of crackers on the market. The Committee agreed that the Scope should not be limited to single ingredient products and that relevant consumer concerns could be addressed in the Labelling section.
Section 2.1 Product Definition
100) The Committee was of the opinion that the reference to “snack” before “food” was rather unnecessary as a description of food, therefore it was deleted.
Section 2.2 Process Definition
101) The reference to phosphates as food ingredients was deleted as proposed by the Delegation of Germany because they belonged in the Additives Section.
102) In order to be consistent with its previous decision concerning the Standard for Dried Salted Anchovies, the Committee decided to move the Section on Packing to this section with the same wording.
Section 3.2 Optional Ingredients
103) For the sake of consistency the Committee accepted the proposal of the Delegation of Canada to use the wording currently used in other relevant standards.
Section 4 Food additives
104) The Committee agreed that polyphosphates were used for this type of fishery products as “sequestrants” with the maximum level in the final product of 5g/kg expressed as P2O5 (singly or in combination) and therefore made the relevant substitution in this section, subject to endorsement by the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants. The Committee noted that Monosodium glutamate was already included in Table 3 of the General Standard for Food Additives.
Section 4 Hygiene
105) The Committee replaced the current Food Hygiene provisions by those approved by the 23rd Session of the Commission and used for commodity standards, as contained in the 11th edition of the Procedural Manual, while maintaining the reference to the Recommended International Code of Practice for Fresh Fish (CAC/RCP 9-1976).
Section 7 Labelling
106) The Committee accepted the proposal of the Delegation of the United Kingdom, supported by some other delegations, that the use of scientific names in this section would have no real value for the consumer and therefore decided to delete this section and renumbered the subsequent sections accordingly.
Other Sections
107) The Committee noted that some sections such as sensory assessment, definition of defectives or lot acceptance were missing from the Draft Standard and accepted the proposal of the Delegation of Malaysia to insert them as presented in document CX/FFP 00/5-Add.2.
Status of the Draft Standard for Crackers from Marine and Freshwater Fish, Crustacean and Molluscan Shellfish
108) The Committee agreed to advance the Draft Standard to Step 8 for final adoption by the 24th Session of the Commission (see Appendix II).
