The 36th Session
of the
CCFL
was held in Ottawa, Canada from April 28 to May 2, 2008. The Session
was attended by 273 delegates representing 72 member countries,
one member organization, and 27 international organizations. The
United States Delegation was headed by Dr. Barbara Schneeman of
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with support provided by
Dr. Heejong Latimer (alternate U.S. Delegate) of the USDA Food Safety
and Inspection Service, 12 government advisors, and 6 non-government
advisors.
The Session discussed numerous complex issues and made significant
progress on most agenda items. The U.S. is particularly pleased
that the Committee agreed to undertake new work related to the implementation
of the WHO
Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The Committee
also successfully resolved two agenda items related to quantitative
ingredient declaration and a definition of advertising and advanced
the documents to Step 8 for adoption by the Commission.
Specifically, the Committee:
• Agreed, in response to the WHO Global Strategy on Diet,
Physical Activity and Health, to undertake new work on proposed
amendments to the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling
with respect to: 1) reviewing and revising the list of nutrients
that are required to be declared and 2) developing general criteria
for the legibility and readability of nutrient declaration. The
Committee agreed to forward a project document on these two items
to the Commission for approval as new work. Three electronic working
groups will further consider these two items and a third item related
to labelling dealing with food ingredients identified in the Global
Strategy. A physical Working Group will convene immediately prior
to the next Session to further consider these issues. The United
States will be a member of these Working Groups.
• Endorsed the labelling provisions of various Codex Standards.
The country of origin labelling provision within the Draft Standard
for Ginseng Products was revised to be consistent with section 4.5.1
of the Codex General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged
Foods.
• Continued consideration of the subject of the labelling
of foods derived from modern biotechnology, eliminating the long-standing
Guidelines at Step 4 and replacing that text with a new "Concepts"
text at Step 3, and retaining the Definitions at Step 7. The Background
Paper on how existing Codex texts could be used to address the labelling
of foods derived from modern biotechnology, which was prepared by
the U.S., Canada, and Nigeria, was well-received and countries noted
the usefulness of the document. Concepts that were derived from
this Background Paper and modified by the Ghana Working Group will
be considered at Step 3 by the next CCFL Session.
• Decided, with respect to the Codex Guidelines for the
Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced
Foods:
- To discontinue work on the inclusion of sodium nitrite, potassium
nitrate, ascorbate salts and certain phosphate salts into table
3 of Annex 2.
- To advance to Step 8 for adoption by the Commission the addition
of ethylene and to return other possible uses of ethylene to Step
6.
- To undertake new work regarding the deletion of rotenone from
Annex 2 and forwarded the project document to the Commission for
approval as new work.
• Recommended for adoption at Step 8 revisions to the Quantitative
Declaration of Ingredients provisions of the Codex General Standard
for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods.
• Recommended for adoption at Step 8 the definition of advertising
as it relates to nutrition and health claims that was agreed to
at the 35th CCFL Session, with the recommendation to include it
as a footnote to the term "advertising" with section 1.1, Scope
of the Codex Guidelines for Use of Nutrition and Health Claims.
• Agreed to continue work of the electronic working group
to consider the development of principles related to the use of
modified standardized common names. The United States will continue
to be a member of the electronic Working Group.
A full report of the meeting, ALINORM 08/31/22, can be found on
the Web site of the Codex Alimentarius Commission: www.codexalimentarius.net.
The following is a brief summary of the Committee's substantive
discussion on the various agenda items.
Draft Action Plan for Implementation of the Global Strategy
on Diet, Physical Activity and Health
At the 35th Session of the CCFL, the Committee had agreed to establish
a physical working group to be held immediately prior to the 36th
Session to further consider various proposed actions outlined in
the WHO Draft Action Plan for Implementation of the Global Strategy
on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The physical working group
held on April 26, 2008, considered the following items:
- Proposed Action 1.2: Amend the Guidelines on Nutrition
Labelling to require that nutrient declaration be mandatory on
the labels of all prepackaged foods.
- Proposed Action 1.3: Expand the list of nutrients that
are always declared to include energy, protein, available carbohydrate,
sugars, fat, saturated fat, trans fatty acids, and sodium.
- Proposed Action 1.4: Develop additional criteria for
the presentation of the nutrient declaration to enhance legibility.
- Proposed Action 1.5: Develop nutrient reference values
(NRVs) for nutrients that are associated with both increased and
decreased risks of NCDs.
- Proposed Action 3.1: Quantitative declaration of ingredients
(QUID)
The United States supported the Committee's consideration of the
above proposed action items as appropriate within the context of
Codex mandate and priorities and in coordination with the Committee
on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU). The United
States elaborated on its experience with the implementation of mandatory
nutrition labelling and noted the need for exemptions and special
labelling provisions under certain circumstances. The U.S. also
stated that cost/benefit analyses conducted in the U.S. clearly
demonstrate the considerable benefits of this approach in terms
of public health. With respect to criteria for presentation of nutrient
declaration, the United States stated that general criteria or principles
may be developed at the international level to ensure legibility
and readability of nutrition information, but recommended that any
criteria developed by CCFL should incorporate sufficient flexibility
to permit national governments to determine the appropriate presentation
of nutrient information based on the needs of their consumers. With
respect to NRVs, the U.S. noted the ongoing work of CCNFSDU and
suggested that CCNFSDU may consider additional nutrients with priority
given to nutrients that are identified to be among the list of mandatory
nutrients.
The Committee recognized that there was sufficient support to undertake
new work with respect to proposed action item 1.3 (list of mandatory
nutrients) and item 1.4 (general criteria for presentation of nutrient
information). With respect to proposed action item 1.2 (mandatory
nutrition labelling) the Committee agreed to develop a discussion
paper outlining the issues and concerns that were raised at the
Session. With respect to item 3.1 (QUID), the Committee agreed that
this issue would be more appropriately addressed outside of the
QUID provisions of the General Standard and within other guidelines
related to claims. The Committee decided to establish three electronic
working groups: 1) an electronic working group chaired by New Zealand,
Australia, and Canada to develop a paper to examine the list of
mandatory nutrients and to prepare a discussion paper outlining
issues related to mandatory nutrition labelling; 2) an electronic
working group chaired by the U.S. to develop general criteria or
principles for the legibility and readability of nutrition labelling;
and 3) an electronic working group chaired by Norway to develop
a discussion paper on labelling dealing with food ingredients identified
in the WHO Global Strategy.
The Committee agreed to convene a physical Working Group prior
to the next Session of CCFL to further consider these issues and
the results of the electronic working groups. The Working Group
is mandated to 1) consider papers developed by the electronic working
groups regarding (i) revision of Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling
concerning the list of mandatory nutrients and a discussion of issues
related to mandatory nutrition labelling; (ii) development of criteria/principles
for legibility and readability of nutrition labelling; and (iii)
labelling dealing with food ingredients identified in the WHO Global
Strategy and 2) provide the 37th CCFL Session with recommendations
to progress work in these three areas. The Committee agreed that
the Working Group will be co-chaired by New Zealand, Norway, and
the United States.
The Committee agreed to forward a project document on the list
of mandatory nutrients and the legibility and readability of nutrition
labelling to the Commission for approval as new work.
Endorsement of the Labelling Provisions of Draft Codex
Standards
The Committee endorsed the labelling provisions in the:
- Draft standard for Gochujang;
- Draft Standard for Ginseng Products, with a revision to the
country of origin declaration consistent with section 4.5.1 of
the Codex General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged
Foods;
- Draft Revised Standard for Foods for Special Dietary Use for
Persons Intolerant to Gluten;
- Draft Standard for Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs; and
- Draft Code of Practice for Fish and Fishery Products; and
- Proposed Draft Amendment of the Codex Standard for Natural Mineral
Waters.
The Committee did not endorse the labelling provisions of the Draft
Standard for Bitter Cassava because of concerns of delegations that
the safety of the product had not been adequately addressed in the
Preparation Instructions included in the draft standard.
Labelling of Foods and Food Ingredients Obtained through
Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering
CCFL, at its 35th (2007) Session, elected to continue consideration
of this subject and agreed to continue a Working Group co-chaired
by Norway, Ghana and Argentina. The Committee also asked the United
States, Canada and Nigeria to undertake an analysis of current Codex
texts, particularly Codex labelling texts, to evaluate whether or
not these texts supply sufficient guidance on the labelling of foods
derived from genetic modification/genetic engineering. This Paper
(CL 2007/38-FL), termed the Background Paper, became the focus of
discussion at the 2008 meeting of the Working Group held in Accra,
Ghana. The Working Group utilized portions of information presented
in the Background Paper, along with other language, to prepare a
new draft document, subsequently termed a "Concepts Paper" and contained
in Appendix III of the Report of the Ghana Working Group.
The Committee had a lengthy discussion on this agenda item with
the discussion focused on the Background Paper and the Concepts
Paper.
The United States pointed out that the Background Paper was intended
to address the needs of countries, particularly developing countries,
for guidance on the labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology.
The United States noted that, from both the 2007 and 2008 Working
Groups, it was clear that countries had developed different approaches
to the labelling of foods derived from modern biotechnology due
to different legal, regulatory and social frameworks. For this reason,
reaching consensus at the international level on a labelling guidance
for foods derived from modern biotechnology was not possible. The
United States also noted the 1996-97 opinion provided by the Codex
Executive Committee that "while consumers may claim the right to
know whether or not foods had been prepared by such means, it also
noted that the claimed right to know was ill-defined and variable
and in this respect could not be used by Codex as the primary basis
of decision-making on appropriate labelling." The United States
stated that existing Codex texts can be applied to address issues
related to the labelling of biotechnology foods and, therefore,
recommended that CCFL discontinue its work on this subject and forward
the Background Paper to the Commission for use as guidance to governments.
Several delegations agreed with this approach.
Many other delegations supported further work on GM/GE food labelling
focused on the Appendix III "Concepts Paper" based on the progress
they felt had occurred at the Ghana Working Group meeting. Discussion
points brought forward included many aspects of prior deliberations
on the subject including the aspect of consumer right to know.
Some delegations pointed out that mandatory processed-based labelling
would substantially increase the cost of production for food and
feed manufacturers and negatively affect the availability of foods,
which would especially affect developing countries and low income
producers. It was also noted that the priority for governments and
for CCFL should be the protection of public health and that there
was contradiction in the fact that some member countries objected
to mandatory nutrition labelling, which was supported by the WHO
Global Strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health, but supported
mandatory processed-based labelling of foods derived from modern
biotechnology which was not related to food safety, nutrition or
health.
After extensive discussion, based on the extent of views supporting
and those opposing the continuation of work on this subject, the
Committee agreed to continue work in this area. The Committee recommended
that Appendix III (Concepts Paper) of the Report of the Ghana Working
Group (CX/FL 08/36/8) replace the current Step 4 Guidelines on biotechnology
labelling and become the working document on this subject; the current
Step 4 text will, therefore, no longer remain in the Codex Step
Procedure and no longer be considered. The Committee agreed that
Appendix III should be considered in conjunction with the Background
Paper and further agreed to circulate Appendix III for country comments
at Step 3 of the Codex Step Procedure. Appendix III, along with
country comments received, will then considered at the next CCFL
Session.
No substantive discussion occurred on the current Step 7 document
relating to definitions and the existing document was held at Step
7.
Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and
Marketing of Organically Produced Foods (Agenda Items 4 a, b, c)
Draft Revised Annex 2: Table 3
At its last Session, the Committee had agreed to return to Step
6 some substances (sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate, ascorbate
salts and certain phosphate salts) in Part 2 of the Table. There
was disagreement among delegations on the appropriateness of the
use of these substances in organic foods and the inclusion of these
substances within the Table. After some discussion, the Committee
noted that the list is indicative and that governments could determine
whether additional substances could be allowed at the national level
and agreed to discontinue work on this agenda item.
Draft Amendment: Addition of Ethylene
Several delegations supported the addition of ethylene, while others
expressed the view that ethylene met the criteria for the use of
substances in several other fruits in addition to kiwifruit and
bananas. After further discussion, the Committee agreed that the
required information on the use of ethylene had presently only been
provided for the ripening of kiwifruit and bananas, but that further
information is needed on possible uses of ethylene in other fruits.
Therefore, the Committee agreed to advance to Step 8 for adoption
by the Commission the addition of ethylene for ripening of kiwifruit
and bananas, and return other possible uses of ethylene to Step
6.
Proposal for New Work: Deletion of Rotenone from Annex
2
The Delegation of Japan presented a proposal for new work and a
project document concerning the deletion of rotenone as an insecticide
from Table 2 of Annex 2. Some delegations supported the deletion
of rotenone because of its toxicity to fish. However, other delegations
pointed out that restricting its use to preventing it from flowing
into waterways was sufficient to manage this risk and, therefore,
these delegations did not support the deletion of rotenone. Following
further discussion, the Committee agreed to undertake new work on
this issue and forward the project document to the Commission for
approval as new work.
Draft Amendment to the General Standard for the Labelling
of Prepackaged Foods: Quantitative Declaration of Ingredients (QUID)
The Committee recalled that the Draft Amendment had been adopted
at Step 5 by the 30th Session of the Commission.
The United States noted the significant progress made by the Committee
at the 35th Session during a physical Working Group and the Plenary
and recommended adoption of the text. The Committee discussed the
text section by section and made a few minor modifications to the
requirements relating to the presentation of the QUID information.
The Committee agreed to advance the Draft Amendment to Step 8 for
adoption by the Commission.
Proposed Draft Definition of Advertising in Relation to
Health and Nutrition Claims
At the previous Session, the Committee had an extensive discussion
on this subject and agreed to the text defining the term "advertising"
for its use in relation of health and nutrition claims. The Committee
recalled that the proposed draft definition had been adopted at
Step 5 by the 30th Session of the Commission, which recommended
that CCFL clarify in which text this definition should be included
when finalized.
The United States reiterated its previous position that advertising
is best defined at the national level and noted the extensive discussions
on this issue at the 35th Session of CCFL. The United States also
recognized the significant compromise reached by that Session on
a definition for this term and observed that the agreed-upon definition
of advertising is limited in its scope to its relation to health
and nutrition claims only and not to a broader definition of advertising.
Therefore, the United States recommended that the definition should
be included within the Codex Guidelines for Use of Nutrition
and Health Claims (CAC/GL 23-1997, Rev. 1-2004) and an appropriate
placement of this definition would be as a footnote to the term
"advertising," which appears in section 1.1, Scope of the Guidelines.
Several countries supported the U.S. suggestion to place the definition
as a footnote within the Scope.
Other countries, however, recommended the placement of the definition
within the "Definitions" section of the Guidelines. After some discussion
and confirmation given by the Codex Secretariat that footnotes were
considered as an integral part of Codex texts, several delegations
that were in favor of inclusion of the definition under "Definitions"
stated that they could accept its inclusion as a footnote within
"Scope" of the Guidelines.
The Committee agreed to advance the draft definition as agreed
to at the 35th Session to Step 8 for adoption by the Commission.
The agreed-upon definition is:
"Advertising means any commercial communication to the public,
by any means other than labelling, in order to promote directly
or indirectly, the sale or intake of a food through the use of
nutrition and health claims in relation to the food and its ingredients."
The Committee agreed that the definition would appear as a footnote
to the word "advertising" in paragraph 1.1 of the Guidelines
for Use of Nutrition and Health Claims.
Discussion Paper on Modified Standardized Common Names
The Delegation of Canada introduced a discussion paper and project
document, based on discussions of the electronic working group,
on the issue of naming of standardized foods that are modified to
qualify for Codex-defined nutrition claims. The electronic working
group identified certain general principles or conditions for the
use of modified names of standardized foods that undergo nutritional
modifications.
The United States along with other delegations stated that food
standards should not impede the development of healthier formulations
of a food and supported the development of horizontal guidelines
for the naming of nutritionally modified standardized foods. These
delegations emphasized the importance of this work in relation to
the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy for Diet, Physical
Activity and Health and recommended that CCFL undertake the new
work stated in the project document.
Some other delegations, however, were concerned about the impact
of this work on existing commodity standards and stated that nutritional
modification of standardized foods would need to be addressed on
a case-by-case basis, not through the development of horizontal
principles. The Committee concluded that there was no consensus
to move the project document to the Commission to request new work.
The Committee, however, decided to continue work in this area and
asked the electronic working group to consider in more detail the
scope of the new work and its impact on other Codex standards. The
United States will continue to be a member of this electronic Working
Group.
Date and Place of the Next Session of CCFL
The date and place of the 37th Session was tentatively indicated
to be May 4 to 8, 2009, in Calgary, Alberta.
The Committee was informed that, as a result of retiring from government
service, Dr. Anne McKenzie was chairing the Committee for the last
time and that the next Session would be chaired by Mr. Paul Mayers
of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. |