Codex Report (ALINORM 10/33/26), 2 - 6 November 2009

CODEX – Report of the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (31st Session), Düsseldorf, Germany

The 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses reached the following conclusions:

MATTERS FOR FINAL ADOPTION BY THE 33RD SESSION OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION:

The Committee:

• agreed to advance the Draft List of Methods for Dietary Fibre, including the revised footnote 1 of definition of dietary fibre to the Commission for adoption at Step 8 (Paras 34- 49, Appendix II);
• agreed to forward the General Principles for Establishing Nutrient Reference Values of Vitamins and Minerals for General Population to the Commission for adoption at Step 5 (Paras 50-85, Appendix III);
• agreed to ask the Commission to approve new work on the revision of the Codex General Principles for the Addition of Essential Nutrients to Foods (CAC/GL 9-1987). (Paras 87-96, Appendix V);
• agreed to ask the Commission to approve new work on the revision of the Codex Guidelines on Formulated Supplementary Foods for Older Infants and Young Children (CAC/GL 8-1991). (Paras 105-123, Appendix VI).

MATTERS REFERRED TO OTHER COMMITTEES

Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS)

The Committee clarified on the reference to calories and the calculation of energy from disaccharides (Paras 11-13);

The Committee agreed to retain the AOAC and CEN microbioassay methods on determination of Vitamin B6 (Para 14).

Codex Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL)

The Committee agreed to refer the discussion of Inclusion of saturated fat and sodium in relation to nutrient reference value for nutrients associated with risk of non communicable disease as presented in paragraphs 149-152 (Paras 16, 149-152) .

The Committee concluded that there was no clear agreement for claims for added sugars and trans-fatty acids at this stage and agreed to request CCFL to provide additional information on the types of claims once the CCFL has identified the claims for which conditions should be established (Paras 17-22) .

The Committee agreed to postpone considering the need for Development of principles for countries to evaluate criterion 1 until after CCNFSDU has established related principles in their proposed new work on NRVs-NCD (Paras 23-24).

The Committee agreed to recommend the CCFL to establish a definition for NRVs and agreed to forward to the CCFL the proposed definition for NRVs for consideration (Paras 147-148).