“1. REQUEST Member States:
to communicate immediately to WHO any decision to limit or prohibit the use of a food additive; and
to supplement as soon as possible such information with the data in support of the decision taken; and
2. REQUESTS the Director-General where such action would be useful:
to transmit immediately to Member States information received under paragraph (1);
to take expeditious steps to evaluate any significant new evidence of toxicity of a specific food additive, including if necessary the convening of a meeting of experts, where appropriate in consultation with FAO;
to distribute promptly to Member States any conclusions of such a meeting.”
Within the last few months in response to this resolution information regarding the use of certain food additives had been submitted to WHO for distribution to Member States.
56. In its review of the mercury problems the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives noted with concern the epidemics of poisoning, the high sensitivity of the foetus, the occurrence among fish-eaters in non-epidemic areas of mercury in the blood and hair approaching those associated with symptoms of poisoning and the correlation in man between the exposure to mercury as a fish contaminant and the incidence of chromosome breaks. Consequently, it recommended that steps be taken to reduce to the absolute minimum further contamination of the environment with mercury. The Committee found no objection to the new proposed uses for copper and sulphate in food processing and recommended no change in the previously recommended maximum intake level. Since the concentration of the stannous ion which is usually present in food as a contaminant is relatively low, it was recommended that for tin the limits set by good manufacturing practice be adopted.
57. The Committee reviewed the available data on cyclamates and recommended that in view of several important unanswered questions, no ADI be established. The Committee recognized, however, that there might be benefits in the use of cyclamates.
58. In its review of monosodium glutamate, the Committee asigned an unconditional ADI for adults, excepting infants under one year of age. It recommended that brominated vegetable oils should not be used as food additives.
59. In addition, the Committee drew up specifications for a number of extraction solvents and recommended that the levels of their residues in food should be reduced to a minimum and below those required by purely economic considerations.
60. The Committee recommended that the computerized calculations of the per capita potential food additive intake be continued by WHO and that those responsible for the design and analysis of food consumption surveys should consult FAO and WHO so that the collective data could be used to the maximum extent for those interested in calculating the amount of the food additives ingested.
61. In order to help provide some answers to questions concerning the problem of mercury poisoning, WHO was providing partial financial assistance for studies at the National Institute of Hygienic Sciences, Tokyo, and at the University of Dundee, Scotland. In addition, the Toxicological Centre of the University of California, Davis, U.S.A., was receiving financial support from WHO for a documentary report of the distribution of mercury in foods.
62. Associated with the consumption of certain tropical fish there has been an increase in the number of outbreaks of human intoxication which were generally due to the ingestion of poisonous fish, shellfish and turtles. Furthermore, the increasing use of agricultural and industrial chemicals had led to the potential danger of contamination of marine food products. In an attempt to obtain further data with which to assess these hazards, a Joint FAO/WHO International Reference Centre on Marine Biotoxins had been established in 1969 in the World Life Research Institute in Colton, California, U.S.A. In addition, a request for a United Nations Development Programme project was being initiated to ensure the safety of marine food products.
63. In an attempt to assess the wholesomeness of irradiated products, a meeting of the Joint FAO/IAEA/WHO Expert Committee on Wholesomeness of Irradiated Food was convened in April 1969. In the light of the available data, this Committee recommended the temporary acceptance of irradiated wheat and potatoes. To further assist the Joint Committee with its work, an International Project in the Field of Food Irradiation had been initiated. WHO was participating in the project in an advisory capacity.
64. The Joint Meeting of the FAO Working Party of Experts on Pesticide Residues and the WHO Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues was held in Rome from 9 – 16 November 1970. The Committee considered a number of amendments, additions and clarifying statements relating to the tolerances or practical residue limits recommended by previous Joint Meetings. The tolerance previously recommended for DDT in fish was withdrawn.
65. In addition the Committee had considered several pesticides for the first time, in particular a number of herbicides. It has also examined new data on certain other pesticides which had previously been considered. In some cases, only temporary acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) or temporary tolerances had been assigned to these compounds. For endrin, it had been possible to establish for the first time an ADI and to recommend tolerances and practical residue limits.
66. New toxicological data had been considered for dieldrin and for the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. The Committee had not been able to assign ADIs for the herbicides, since no chronic toxicological data was available. It was recognized that current registered uses of either 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T on cereal crops did not give rise to significant residues.
67. The Committee had also expressed concern over the serious toxic effects of diquat and parquat, especially with respect to the relatively high sensitivity of man to the latter compound.
68. The 15th Session of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives was held on 18 – 24 June 1971 in Rome. An evaluation of chemical additives and food contaminants of interest to the Commission took place.
69. WHO had made reports available to governments on the Organization's activities concerning food hygiene. These activities had consisted of the provision of advisory services to various countries requesting assistance, the convening of seminars and training courses, the issue of reports of several meeting of expert committees, the exchange of research workers and the arrangement of fellowships.
70. In 1970, the Third Report of the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Milk Hygiene had been published. More recently, the Report of the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Brucellosis had been published which dealt, inter alia, with matters concerning the transmission of the disease through food and also contained recommendations regarding measures for the control of this disease. The World Health Assembly had agreed to the convening in 1972 of a Seminar for African countries on the Surveillance and Control of Zoonoses and of Foodborne Infections and Intoxications. The Seminar would consider, inter alia, the food-borne infections and intoxications prevalent in Africa, control of measures practicable under local conditions and the international movement of meat, fish and other animal products which can act as vehicles for the transmission of the disease.
71. Further progress had been made in the development of unified microbiological procedures for the examination of food, including sampling methods, examination techniques and the evaluation of results. Microbiological specifications for a number of food products had also been elaborated, particularly for those products which were traded internationally. WHO was collaborating closely in this field with the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods. This Commission had published a book containing a series of microbiological procedures entitled “Microorganisms in Foods, Their Significance and Methods of Enumeration”, edited by F.S. Thatcher and D.S. Clark (University of Toronto Press, 1968). The methods for detection of the most important food-borne pathogens were being subjected to inter-laboratory studies supported by WHO. The collaborating group consisted of 14 laboratories located in Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. Another group of laboratories in Belgium, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxmbourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, supported by WHO had devoted their efforts to the unification of methods for detection of Salmonellae in foods. Another laboratory collaborating with WHO in Copenhagen was involved in developing techniques for the handling and preparation of food samples for microbiological examination.
72. The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods, in close collaboration with WHO was in the process of elaboration statistical sampling plans for foods intended for microbiological examination. The results of this extremely difficult and complex work had been discussed at Conferences in Mexico City in 1970 and in Opatija in 1971. It was hoped that the work would be finalized at next year's conference. A text entitled “Sampling for the Microbiological Analysis of Foods. Principles and Specific Applications” had been prepared by the International Commission and had been discussed at the Commission's 1971 session. It contained, inter alia, sampling plans for more than 200 food products.
73. WHO had expanded considerably its programme in food virology. There was evidence that the etiology of 40–50 percent of reported food-borne disease outbreaks, even in developed countries, remains unknown. It might be that some of them were of virological origin. It had been recognized that knowledge in this field was, in general, restricted to those viruses causing characteristic clinical symptoms in man, which facilitate the detection of the source of viruses. Much additional work was required to determine the importance and infectivity for man of other food-borne viruses. WHO's programme on food virology comprised three components, namely:
elaboration of methods for detecting viruses in foods;
research on the effects of various food processing techniques on the survival or destruction of viruses in foods;
collection of data on the presence of viruses in foods.
Two consultations on food virology had been held in Geneva and another would be held in July. Two groups, consisting of more than 20 scientists, had been assigned the task of collecting data on the presence of viruses in raw milk and fresh meat (Czechoslovakia) and processed food (U.S.A.).
74. WHO had supported research work in various countries of the world with respect to control of some of the most important zoonoses, such as brucellosis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, echinoccosis (hydatidosis), cysticercosis-taeniasis, trichinellosis and other parasitic diseases, for many of which, food might serve as an important vehicle for transmission to man.
75. The delegation of Morocco requested more details on the training of personnel in meat hygiene and meat inspection. The joint FAO/WHO Course on Meat Hygiene had met in 1965, 1967 and 1969 and Courses on Abattoir Management and Operations in 1962, 1964, 1966 and 1968 had been conducted in Denmark. In 1970, the subjects of both courses had been combined, upon the recommendations of the participants in previous courses, and a new type of course under the title FAO/WHO Combined Centre on Meat Hygiene and Abattoir Development had been convened.
76. The FAO/WHO Training Centre for Meat Inspectors had operated in Kenya every year since 1966. An Ad Hoc Meeting on Education and Training in Meat Production, Handling, Hygiene and Marketing was convened by FAO in Rome, 11–15 January 1971. It had been recommended by the Ad Hoc Meeting that the Combined Centre on Meat Hygiene and Abattoir Development should be changed to a Meat Production and Industry Development Course. It has been further recommended that a permanent Regional Meat Training Centre be established in Africa. The delegation of New Zealand stressed the need for further development in Meat Hygiene and Inspection and also mentioned that the World Association of Veterinary Food Hygienists had convened a Round Table Conference “Today's Meat Hygiene and Inspection” in Langford near Bristol, England, from 14 to 16 December 1970, which had dealt with further developments in this field.
77. Priority was being given by FAO/WHO to requests for assistance from Member Governments regarding the strengthening of food control at a national level. Closer collaboration between the two Organizations had been developed to ensure that a better service would be provided to governments. A number of delegations had, during the Seventh Session and the present one, expressed their needs for strengthening the food control services in their countries, and their desire that the two Organizations should give a high priority to this activity. Member Governments determined their own inter se priorities for various development programmes. However, in case the advice of the two Organizations was called for, the Organizations would be pleased to submit advice for consideration by the national authorities. Member Governments were at present involved with their “country programming” exercises, suggested by the UNDP and the Member Governments needing assistance in this area could, if they so wished, ensure that food control was included in the programme and given a high priority. FAO and WHO would do their best to give the necessary technical advice and assistance in the different fields of food control. Such advice and assistance might include drafting of basic food legislation and the accompanying regulations, setting up of laboratories, training of food inspectors and analysts.
78. The Commission noted that the draft agenda for the UN Conference on Human Environment to be held in Stockholm in 1972, included the subject “Identification, effects and control of contamination through Man's Food Chain”. FAO and WHO, in collaboration with other UN agencies like IAEA, were involved in the preparation of papers for the consideration of the UN Conference Secretariat. This would probably be a discussion paper which might lead to certain recommendations and follow-up action in the field of activities of the Commission. While it was premature to indicate the exact position that the Conference Secretariat and, later on, the Conference might take on this paper, the draft stressed the work of FAO/WHO in the fields of food control in general and the evaluation of hazards to health from contaminants in particular. It brought out the importance of the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the need for strengthening the food control arrangements at the national level and the need for developing a programme for data retrieval and evaluation in the field of food contamination at an international level under the aegis of FAO/WHO. It was possible that the deliberations at the Stockholm Conference and the recommendations of the Conference in the field of food contamination might considerably influence the work of the Commission and the future programme of work of FAO and WHO.
