2. The Session was opened by Dr M. Wolfs, General Manager of the Health Protection Inspectorate. He welcomed the Committee to The Hague and acknowledged the increased significance of food safety in the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in recent years, especially within the framework of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He mentioned the recent discussion on the Working Principles for Risk Analysis in the Work of Codex, including other legitimate factors such as consumer concern and the precautionary principle. This year the discussion would be focused on the role of the acute dietary exposure assessment in developing Codex MRLs, for which Member countries were urgently requested to provide WHO and FAO with the relevant consumption information, such as information on large portion sizes and the weight of single commodity units. The availability of these data was a conditio sine qua non for incorporation of acute risk analysis into the decision-making process at the international level.
