10. The Committee took note of the issues addressed at the 23rd Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and in other Codex Committees, including those arising from the 47th Session of the Executive Committee of the Commission (CCEXEC). The Committee was informed that the meeting document was mainly presented by way of information, except for those matters where the Committee was invited to provide its comments.
11. The Chairman of the Codex Alimentarius Commission presented his Action Plan which, he informed the Committee, would be finalized and sent to the Codex Secretariat for distribution, comments and consideration at the next session of the Commission. The Committee welcomed the proposals included in the Action Plan and requested its prompt circulation so that the document could be received in time to send comments.
12. The delegation of Uruguay expressed its concern over Recommendations 10 and 14 of the Melbourne Conference regarding the need to explore possible strategies to collect information from all regions of the world on consumer requirements, perceptions, beliefs and motivations concerning food, nutrition and food safety, pointing out the scale of such a task given the wide diversity of type of consumer. This concern was endorsed by several delegations.
13. With regard to the previous paragraph, the delegation of Mexico requested the determination of lines of action and mechanisms to follow up on these Recommendations, and on the measures to ensure consensus indicated by the Codex Committee on General principles (CCGP) and the Melbourne Conference. In addition, the Observer from the Latin American Poultry Association (ALA) reiterated the undertaking of the industry to collaborate on this matter and to encourage governments, international organizations and academia to start implementing the Recommendations as soon as possible.
14. The delegation of Colombia, referring to paragraphs 11 and 12 of Annex II of document CX/LAC 01/2, underlined the importance of putting into effect the information systems on detained or rejected food commodities and the exchange of such information.
15. The Observer of Consumers International informed the Committee that at its last conference its member organizations had called on governments to insist on a thorough pre-market evaluation and on social impact and safety assessments of genetically modified foods, to ensure that these were safe, environmentally sustainable and acceptable to consumers.
16. With regard to the adoption of the Proposed Draft Guidelines on the Judgement of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures Associated with Food Inspection and Certification Systems at the last session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS), the Committee expressed its disagreement with the recommendations to omit Steps 6 and 7, as it considered this to be a very complex issue, for which there was not an adequate text in Spanish, and as there had not been a genuine consensus in the CCFICS. The Committee therefore asked that the document be circulated as soon as possible for the submission of comments.
17. The Codex Secretariat informed the Committee that the recommendation to omit Steps 6 and 7 meant that the Commission would have the option of returning the text for a further round of comments if the comments received at Step 5 suggested that this would be appropriate. If, on the other hand, the comments received favoured the advancement of the text, the Commission would have the option to proceed directly to Step 8. The Secretariat urged the delegations to send their comments in a timely manner and to make every effort to attend the next session of the Commission.
