Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (34th Session)

• Generally endorsed the food hygiene provisions of the Code of Practice for Fish and Fishery Products, however since some parts of the above Code were at different stages of development, requested the Committee on Fish and Fishery to forward such provisions to the Hygiene Committee once the above Code had been preliminary adopted in its entirety.
• Agreed to amend the title and advance the Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for final adoption by the 25th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission;
• Recommended that the results of the ad hoc Expert Consultations on risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes in ready to eat foods and Salmonella enteritidis in eggs be utilized in developing/revising the relevant Codex documents and suggested that the report of the Expert Consultation on Salmonella spp. in poultry be considered by the Committee on Meat and Poultry Hygiene in the context of their work related to the elaboration of codes of hygienic practice. The Committee also agreed to develop risk management strategies for Campylobacter spp. in poultry and Vibrio spp. in fish and shellfish with a view towards defining specific questions to be addressed in risk assessments, and to prepare a risk profile for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in commodities of concern. The Committee requested FAO and WHO to convene an expert consultation to assist the Committee to integrate risk assessment results in the development of standards and related texts. The Committee decided to revise the document on the Proposal for a Process by which the Food Hygiene Committee could undertake its Work in Microbiological Risk Assessment/Risk Management. The Committee agreed to ask FAO and WHO that the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultations on Microbiological Risk Assessment be given permanent status in order to further enhance the risk assessment work of FAO and WHO and to support the risk management work of this Committee.
• Agreed to redraft the Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Foods for consideration at its next session;
• Agreed to redraft the Proposed Draft Principles and Guidelines for the Conduct of Microbiological Risk Management on the basis of comments received and discussions held during the session including the consideration of the concept of traceability;
• Agreed to redraft the Proposed Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Milk and Milk Products for consideration at its next session;
• Decided to discontinue the consideration of the Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Hygienic Reuse of Processing Water in Food Plants and of the Discussion paper on the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Evaluating Objectionable Matter in Food, in view of its heavy workload for the time being, with the understanding that this decision would be reviewed at its 36th Session;
• Agreed to forward the revised existing Guidelines for the Application of HACCP System which include recommendations on the application of HACCP System in Small and/or Less Developed Businesses for provisional adoption by the 50th session of the Executive Committee and to complete further the relevant sections of the Guidelines at its next session;
• Agreed that the revised version of the existing Code of Hygienic Practice for Egg Products would be circulated for comments and consideration by the next session of the Committee;
• Noted that a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to risk assessment would be required on Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in Food and agreed that the emergence of pathogen-specific antimicrobial resistance such as fluoroquinolone-resistant Camplylobacter in poultry should be examined as data became available. The Committee also agreed to initiate work on Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Validation of Food Hygiene Control Measures, pending approval of this initiative by the Executive Committee;
• Agreed that the document on the Guidelines for the Obtaining Data of Interest for Microbiological Risk Assessment was relevant to all countries and that this document be forwarded to FAO and WHO for consideration, with the understanding that the results of these discussions would be reported to a future session of the Committee for potential action.