13. The Coordinating Committee was informed of the Joint FAO/WHO activities taken over the previous two years with a view to providing scientific guidance in the area of interest of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, in particular those activities taken by JECFA, JMPR and FAO/WHO Joint Consultations in the field of microbiological risk assessment and foods derived from biotechnology. The Coordinated Committee was informed in particular that a FAO/WHO/ILSI Regional Workshop on Risk Analysis had been held immediately before the opening of its present session to address the exposure assessment (See also Agenda Item 6).
14. FAO had convened in association with its partners WHO and WTO, an important international Conference on Food Trade Beyond 2000 (Melbourne, October 1999). The recommendations of the Conference were an important source of information for all countries wishing to bring their national food control capacities into harmony with the international trading environment. The Conference also made substantial recommendations to FAO and WHO on means to assist developing countries to achieve this goal.
15. The Representative of FAO further informed the Coordinating Committee of the organization’s technical assistance activities that had been implemented in the Region as a part of the global framework and other activities designed specifically for the Region. Virtually all countries of the Region had benefited from the technical assistance projects undertaken by FAO in the field of food control and consumer protection.
16. The Representative of WHO presented activities of WHO and informed the Coordinating Committee that the World Health Assembly Resolution on food safety included several recommendations to WHO and its Member countries to allocate sufficient resources for food safety programmes. At the regional level, the 46th Session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, delegates adopted a Regional Action Plan to Address Food Safety in the 21st century, based on a technical paper on food safety presented to the Ministers of Health of the Region. Activities to follow-up and implement this Plan had already begun with activities at the national level. Several countries have planned extensive reviews of their food safety systems with a view to general improvement of the systems, rather than their individual components. Various countries are presently preparing food safety profiles, which will be collated and published. Food legislation is being reviewed in most countries, and will be part of this publication.
17. The Coordinating Committee noted that the different climate and breeds of animals in the Region might require the establishment of different MRLs for veterinary drugs than those determined on the basis of data prepared by industrialized countries and that more field trials on veterinary drugs of interest to the Region should be conducted in developing countries. The same was true for the development of MRLs for pesticides in products of importance to the Region. In this connection the Coordinating Committee was informed that the JECFA and JMPR were open in accepting all scientific data prepared by all interested parties, and that developing countries should be especially encouraged to provide data.
18. In regard to products of specific interest to the Region, the Coordinating Committee welcomed the work being undertaken by the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues to establish for spices and aromatic plants as these were being products that were economically important for the Region. It noted that special concern should be taken when establishing MRLs to ensure that the limits chosen would be specific to either the fresh or dried products, as appropriate, and that there should be no confusion between the two. For removal and disposal of obsolete pesticides FAO’s Plant Protection Division offered technical assistance about which information was available on the website of that Division.
19. In reply to the observation that diseases such as BSE and Rift Valley Fever should be dealt with by FAO and WHO and other organizations, the Representative of WHO stated that a FAO/WHO/OIE consultation would be held in Geneva in April 2001 on the risk assessment of BSE in order to provide Member countries with the most up-to-date scientific information on the current situation. Concerning Rift Valley Fever, the Representative of WHO noted that there was no evidence that this was a food-borne disease, even though it was recognized that the disease could be transmitted from animals to humans. Information on this disease was available from the WHO Website.
20. In response to a question concerning support to food microbiology laboratories, the Representative of FAO, stated that such support was an integral part of the FAO technical cooperation as microbiology laboratories are an integral part of the national food control system. The Representative of WHO stated that WHO provided training, especially in detection of Salmonella and interpretation of results through its network of collaborating centres.
21. With respect to the recommendation made by some Delegations that a regional forum be established to exchange information on food safety and related issues, the Coordinating Committee, noting the difficulty of establish such a forum within the current Codex framework, was informed of the possibility of convening a meeting autonomously within the Region and/or with the assistance of FAO and WHO. The Pan-European Conference on Food Safety, organized by FAO with the cooperation of WHO at the request of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe, was an example of meetings of this kind. It was noted that similar regional food safety conferences were under consideration. The Committee strongly recommended that FAO and WHO organize such a Region-wide joint meeting to exchange information on food safety and related issues for the countries of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean Regions of FAO and WHO, respectively.
