It has also been agreed that a dual limit could be included for all commodities where it can be shown that the commodity can be sorted effectively to reduce contamination. The Commission has asked for information the sorting methods employed for commodities other than groundnuts.

The sampling plan document was also discussed. The Commission was pushing for agreement to the general principle in the document regarding increments, aggregate samples and sub-samples. A revision to the lot sizes was tabled. The Commission was asked at what point sampling would be carried out for Community-produced commodities such as cereals and milk. It seems this will be when a commodity ‘enters into trade’ which was defined as when a farmer sells the commodity on. There was also a suggestion that Brazil nuts and almonds should undergo more intensive sampling than previously suggested.

The Commission will revise the proposals.

There was also an exchange of views on including Ochratoxin A and Patulin in the discussions again. The Commission will be asking the Scientific Committee on Foodstuffs (SCF) for a re-evaluation of these 2 mycotoxins. Meanwhile it is possible that these will be put back into the discussion of the Working Group as a separate proposal.