4 - 9 December 2006

CODEX – Committee on Food Hygiene (38 th Session) Houston, United States of America

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The Thirty-eighth Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene reached the following conclusions:

MATTERS FOR FINAL ADOPTION BY THE 30TH SESSION OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION:

The Committee:

• agreed to forward the Draft Principles and Guidelines for the Conduct of Microbiological Risk Management to the Commission for adoption at Step 8 (see ALINORM 07/30/13 paras 37 - 81 and Appendix IV);
• agreed to forward the Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Eggs and Egg Products to the Commission for adoption at Step 8 (see ALINORM 07/30/13 paras 86 - 125 and Appendix II);
• agreed to forward the Draft Guidelines on the Application of General Principles of Food Hygiene to the Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Foods to the Commission for adoption at Step 8 (see ALINORM 07/30/13 paras 126- 145 and Appendix III).

MATTERS FOR ACTION BY THE COMMISSION

The Committee:

• noted that there was no consensus on the removal of restriction on the use of the Lactoperoxidase System in milk and milk products intended for international trade and decided to refer this matter to the Commission (paras 29-32 and 188-195).

NEW WORK

• agreed to consolidate two proposals on broiler chicken into a single one and to initiate new work on the proposed draft Guidelines for Control of Campylobacter and Salmonella spp. in Broiler (Young Bird) Chicken Meat (para. 203).

MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE COMMISSION AND/OF TO FAO/WHO

The Committee:

• did not consider the document on the Elaboration of Risk-based Standards for Microbiological Hazards: Enhancing the Process as this matter was already taken and addressed by the FAO/WHO Expert Meeting, Kiel, 2006 and the Workshop in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, 2006 (para. 9);
• agreed with amendments made to the Proposed Process by Which the Committee on Food Hygiene will Undertake its Work by the CCGP and referred the proposal for the work on the development of the CCFH Risk Analysis Policies document to the CCFH Working Group on Priorities (paras 15-17);
• agreed to split the Principles and Guidelines for the Conduct of Microbiological Risk Management into two documents one on the Principles and Guidelines for Microbiological Risk Management which had been finalized and forwarded to the Commission for final adoption; and other on the Development of Guidelines for the Establishment and Use of Risk Management Metrics which would be supplemental to the above Principles and Guidelines and would be elaborated at a later stage (para. 41);
• agreed to hold the Annex on Application of Food Safety Metrics in Risk Management Decision Making-Pasteurized Liquid Whole Eggs at Step 4 until the progress on Annex on microbiological metrics is made (para. 84);
• agreed to priorities for scientific advice be provided to the Committee by FAO/WHO, and the terms of reference for the FAO/WHO Expert Consultations on fresh produce and on viruses in food, as well as to the question to be posed to risk assessors on the risk reduction in the draft standard for Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs (paras 209-215);
• agreed to consider Microbiological Criteria on Listeria monocytogenes in Ready-to-Eat Foods at the Committee's next session (para. 145);
• agreed to clarify the Scope of the Proposed Draft Code of Hygienic Practice for Powdered Formulae for Infants and Young Children and returned the document to Step 2 for redrafting by the working group (see para. 156 and para. 160);
• agreed to clarify the Scope of the Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Validation of Food Safety Control Measures and to return the document to Step 2 for redrafting by the working group (see para. 169 and para. 183);
• noted information that Delegation of Cuba was not able to attend the Session due to the visa problems while noting the efforts of the Chairperson and the US Codex Secretariat to facilitate the participation of all member countries (paras 194-195).

MATTERS OF INTEREST TO OTHER COMMITTEES:

CODEX COMMITTEE ON FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES (CCFFV)

The Committee agreed to request FAO and WHO to provide scientific advice on the draft terms of reference for an FAO/WHO expert consultation to support the development of commodity-specific annexes for the Codex Alimentarius “Code of Hygienic Practice for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables”(paras 224-231).

CODEX COMMITTEE ON FISH AND FISHERY PRODUCTS (CCFFP)

The Committee endorsed with amendments the hygiene provision of the Proposed Draft Code of Practice for Fish and Fishery Products and did not endorse the Hygiene Provisions in the Draft Standard for Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs (see paras 217-223).

In regard to marine biotoxins, the Committee is of the opinion that these provisions should be considered under the section on contaminants in the draft Standard and that consideration of these issues were outside the competence of this Committee. The Committee was of the view that the matter of marine biotoxins should be sent to the Committee on Contaminants for their advice and endorsement, if necessary. The Committee noted, however, that the Principles for the Establishment and Application on Microbiological Criteria for Foods covered biotoxins and advised that the CCFFP take these Principles into consideration when further developing this section in the standard (para.223).