SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The Second Session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology reached the following conclusions:

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION

The Task Force: (a) Agreed to advance the Proposed Draft Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology to Step 5 of the procedure for the consideration of the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (para. 49, Appendix II); (b) Agreed to advance the Proposed Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants to Step 5 of the procedure for the consideration of the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (para. 77, Appendix III); (c) Adopted a preliminary report for submission to the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (para. 90, Appendix V). (d) Agreed, subject to the approval by the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, to initiate a new work at Step 1 on the elaboration of a guideline for conduct of food safety assessment of modified microorganisms in food (para. 91);

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE COMMISSION

The Task Force: (a) Agreed to develop, for the Guideline document, a separate annex containing detailed procedures for the allergenicity assessment and also agreed to establish an open-ended Working Group to be chaired by the Government of Canada to this end (para.70); (b) Agreed to request comments on the papers on traceability provided by the Delegations of France and the United States by means of a circular letter for further discussion at its next session (para. 83) (c) Agreed to document the present status of validation of the methods that had been reported by the member countries and recommended that a register or depository containing relevant information on methods for the detection or identification of foods or food ingredients derived from biotechnology (as well as the availability of reference materials) be established (para. 86); (d) Recommended that a future joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation should consider safety assessment where an appropriate conventional counterpart was absent for example in the case of modified micro-organisms used in food production and processing (para. 28) (e) Welcomed the initiative of FAO and WHO to convene expert consultations to support the scientific aspects of its work in the area of foods derived from genetically modified microorganisms and fish (para. 92)