30. As agreed at the 1st Session of the Task Force[14], an open-ended meeting was held at the Danish Plant Directorate to consider comments submitted in response to a questionnaire attached to Circular Letter CL 2000/21-AF. The open-ended meeting discussed the application of the draft Code of Practice on Good Animal Feeding in the context of prohibited and undesirable substances in animal feedingstuffs. The meeting was chaired by Mr Bill Knock of the United Kingdom, who presented the report of the open-ended meeting (see CRD 1).
31. In order to respond to concerns noted at the 1st Session of the Task Force on the lack of clear definitions and subsequent difficulties in elaborating lists of substances that might be either considered as prohibited or undesirable, the Task Force discussed the terminology drafted by the open-ended meeting.
32. The Task Force noted that many replying countries wished to establish either positive or negative lists of feed materials and feed additives at the international level. The open-ended meeting acknowledged the difficulties in maintaining updated lists, especially in the context of the limited duration of the Task Force.
33. The Task Force was informed of the results of the open-ended meeting (see CRD 1) that a “positive list” was a listing of all materials defined in a given category and that a “negative list” was a listing of materials, to be defined, which are prohibited for use in animal feedingstuffs. The Task Force agreed that this issue would be further examined by the Drafting Group considering the revision of the Code (see para. 67).
34. With regard to “undesirable substances”, the Task Force noted that the Codex definition[15] of contaminants implied the fact that contaminants could be naturally occurring toxicants. The Task Force discussed, modified and agreed upon the definition proposed by the open-ended meeting for inclusion in the Definition Section of the Code of Practice for Good Animal Feeding (see paras. 50-51).
35. In view of the above discussion, the Task Force agreed to obtain additional information by Circular Letter on controls of permitted, prohibited and undesirable substances for compilation and consideration at its next Session.
36. The Task Force thanked the open-ended meeting for its work and valuable contributions to the meeting.
