103. The Committee recalled that following the decision of the last session to undertake a revision of the Advisory Lists, this proposal for new work had been approved by the 23rd Session of the Commission and a Circular Letter had been sent to ask for proposals for amendments to the lists.
104. The Delegation of the United States pointed out that before undertaking a detailed revision of the Lists it was essential to determine the criteria for the inclusion and deletion of vitamins and minerals therein, so as to ensure that they were appropriate for use by infants and young children, that the ingredient sources were safe and that the inclusion of any substance in the list was based on adequate scientific evidence.
105. The Delegation of Germany indicated that several aspects would need to be taken into account to achieve a thorough revision of the lists, as follows: the title, objective and structure of the list; the choice of nutrients; the purity requirements; and the use in different types of foods for infants and children.
106. Some delegations and the Observer from the EC proposed to add other nutrients to the lists, such as amino acids and essential fatty acids in order to provide useful references. The Committee however agreed that in view of its considerable workload, it would be preferable to restrict its work to vitamins and minerals at the present time. It was noted that consideration could be given to the inclusion of other nutrients after substantial progress had been made on the revision of the current lists.
107. The Chairman drew the attention of the Committee to the criteria which had been considered in earlier sessions and used to develop the current list[15]. The Committee agreed that a Circular Letter would ask for comments concerning the criteria to be used for the inclusion and deletion of mineral salts and vitamin compounds in the Lists and which categories of nutrients (e.g. vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc) should be included in the List, and that the Delegation of Germany, with the assistance of interested countries, would prepare proposals for consideration by the next session. The Committee noted that the earlier criteria would be included in the CL as a reference.
