86. The Committee recalled that, following a proposal made at the last session, and following its approval as new work by the Executive Committee, the proposed draft standard had been developed by a group of countries led by Germany and Norway. The Delegation of Germany introduced the document and stressed the major aspects of the standard: the need to address safety aspects related to nematodes; the exclusion from the scope of marinated and substitution products; the intention to cover both semi-final products and those ready for consumption. The Committee reviewed the text section by section and made the following amendments.
87. The Committee agreed with the proposal of the Delegation of Denmark to include sprats (Sprattus sprattus) in the standard; the title, scope and relevant sections were modified accordingly, with a reference to "fish" instead of "herring" in several sections.
Section 2.1
88. Some delegations expressed their concern about the hygiene of the product, as salting might be carried out on fish which had not been eviscerated in certain cases. Other delegations indicated that as producer countries of this traditional product, they were not aware of health hazards. The Delegation of the Netherlands stated that only a small portion of the intestines remained in their special product (maatjes). The Committee did not come to a conclusion on this question.
Section 2.3
89. The Committee noted that the EC legislation did not allow any visible parasites in herring, whether dead or alive, and the Committee had a detailed discussion on the requirements concerning nematodes. Some delegations stressed that only live nematodes represented a hazard to health, and that they were visible only in fillets and not in whole fish. The Committee agreed that section 2.2.3 on Nematodes would refer to "visible" larvae and would be moved to the Hygiene section.
Section 6. Labelling
90. Some delegations questioned the purpose of section 6.1.2, which required additional labelling without clarifying what this labelling should describe, and the Committee noted that this provision had been taken from other standards, but could be reconsidered in the future.
Section 7. Sampling
91. The Committee recalled that the current sampling plan referred to containers (barrels) of salted fish and agreed to the suggestion of the Delegation of Canada to refer to the Codex Sampling Plan (CAC/RM 42-1969) for smaller containers.
Section 8. Defectives and Annex I
92. Following its earlier discussion on nematodes, the Committee agreed to add the same section on Parasites as in the Standard for Quick-Frozen Fish Fillets. The Delegation of Iceland reserved its position on the whole issue of nematodes as it required further consideration. The Delegation of Germany indicated that it was willing to develop a method to determine the viability of nematodes.
Status of the Proposed Draft Standard for Salted Atlantic Herring and Salted Sprats
93. The Committee agreed to return the Draft Standard, as amended at the current session, to Step 3 for further comments and consideration by the next session (see Appendix VII).
