46. The Committee considered its future work programme on the basis of a working paper prepared by the Secretariat in consultation with the Regional Coordinator and Member countries, which contained proposals for future work made by certain Member countries of the Region.
CONSIDERATION OF THE NEED FOR A CODE OF HYGIENIC PRACTICE FOR STREET-VENDED FOODS IN THE NEAR EAST REGION
47. The Committee noted that street-vended foods were an important item of household food supply in many countries of the Region, where they provided nutritious food at affordable prices for very many people. Moreover, the preparation and sale of street foods often had very desirable social and economic consequences in terms of employment, encouragement of small-scale entrepreneurs, and in many cases family adhesion. However, street-vended foods if not prepared properly had the potential to be sources of food-borne illness and consumer fraud.
48. The Committee noted that many of these issues had been addressed in similar regional codes drawn up by the Codex Regional Coordinating Committees for Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Commission had approved the development of these codes at a regional level, but had recognized that they would require further refinement at the national or even municipal level depending on local considerations.
49. Delegations expressed strong support for the development of a Regional Code. It was pointed out that such a code would be useful in assuring that the necessary food safety and quality controls would be applied in the street food industry. It was also pointed out that such a code would be useful when dealing with NGOs that were working in various countries and encouraging the development of the street food sector.
50. The Representative of Consumers International and the Arab Federation for Consumer expressed concern at the development of such a code, stating that street foods represented a public health and consumer protection problem in the countries of the Region and the importance of cooperation of all parties concerned in the development of a Regional Code for street-vended foood.
51. The Coordinating Committee agreed to request the Commission’s approval to commence work on a Code of Hygienic Practice for Street-Vended Foods, taking into account the work already undertaken in other Regions.
CONSIDERATION OF THE NEED FOR THE ELABORATION OF A REGIONAL STANDARD FOR MICROBIOLOGICAL LEVELS IN FOODS
52. The Coordinating Committee considered a proposal to develop a regional standard for microbiological levels in foods based on the guidelines already prepared by the Standards Committee of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Several Delegations expressed their strong support for this initiative, especially as a “Yes/No” decision-making approach could be applied to potentially hazardous imported food products on the basis of such a standard.
53. The Secretariat and the Representatives of FAO and WHO advised the Coordinating Committee that the approach being recommended in this proposal was no longer considered to be the appropriate means of assuring product safety and for consumer protection. On scientific grounds it had been shown that end-product microbiological specifications were subject to significant error (especially for false negative results) due to the heterogeneous distribution of contamination in products and therefore led to a false sense of security. Moreover, the amount of sampling required to obtain any statistically significant result was extremely high. Also, end-product testing, or testing at any one point in the food chain, did not guarantee that the product would remain microbiologically sound, especially in hot climates or under conditions of poor handling. The internationally preferred approach to microbiological food safety was now the HACCP system.
54. The Representative of WHO also referred to the work being undertaken by FAO, WHO and the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene to see if microbiological limits could be established for certain commodity/micro-organism combination on the basis of modern risk assessment. Thus far, this work had proven to be very difficult from a scientific point of view.
55. However, Delegations stressed the urgent need for such guidance for countries of the Region, especially as the Region as a whole was highly dependent on imported foods and the HACCP model was difficult to accept due to the facts that a) HACCP was considered to be for voluntary application, and b) that the application of HACCP by a food manufacturer or processor in the country of origin was outside the jurisdiction of the importing country.
56. The Coordinating Committee agreed to prepare a working paper for its next session in which the proposed guidance would be compared with international standards and advice on the issue. It was agreed that the issue needed careful study in order to avoid establishing recommendations to governments that were not scientifically based. The Delegations of Egypt, Iran, Sudan and the Representative of the Gulf Cooperation Council agreed to cooperate in the preparation of the working paper.
CONSIDERATION OF THE NEED FOR STANDARDS FOR CHICKPEA AND FAVA BEAN
57. The Coordinating Committee noted that this proposal referred to chickpea and fava bean processed and traded as “humus” and “foul-medemes” respectively. Both products were extensively traded within the Region and also exported to other regions. It was noted that a Codex Standard already existed for chickpea and fava bean when sold as dried products (Codex Standard for Certain Pulses, Codex Stan 171-1989, Rev.1-1995).
58. The Committee agreed to request the Commission to initiate work on the elaboration of an international standard for these products (Step 1 of the Codex Procedure).
OTHER MATTERS
59. The Committee recalled its discussion concerning the translation of the full text of the Codex Alimentarius into Arabic (see paras. 7 and 9 above). While noting that FAO and WHO were committed to equal treatment of all languages, the Committee recognized that there existed within the Region a considerable resource of documents (Codex Standards) already translated into Arabic by the Member countries and Regional Organizations, that could be used to expedite the final publication of the Codex Alimentarius in Arabic. It recommended that the Secretariat explore the opportunity of using this resource to meet the obligation of full publication of the Codex Alimentarius in all languages.
