73. At the Fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission the Secretariat had been requested to prepare a survey of the needs of African countries in respect of food legislation and standards. The Commission was informed that the Secretariat had obtained some information from African countries and that a certain amount of data had also been received through the offices of the FAO Regional and Country Representatives stationed in Africa. The Commission was also informed that the document which the Secretariat had prepared had been found useful by other services in FAO whose function was to advise developing countries. The Commission was informed that in the main the food legislation of these countries was based either on British or French legislation but some progress had been made recently in drawing up national food laws in some countries. The Commission noted that there had been an increase in the membership of African countries in the Codex Alimentarius Commission from 4 to 9 countries and again emphasized the importance of the participation of all the developing countries in the work of the Commission. Such membership was also useful to establish contacts with the authorities responsible in these countries for health, sanitary and other matters connected with food legislation and to enable those authorities to receive useful information from FAO and WHO on the activities of the Commission. It was emphasized that membership did not involve any financial contribution additional to that which countries were already making to the Regular Programs and Budgets of both Organizations, and that participation in the work of the Commission could also be carried out by way of correspondence. It was decided that a similar survey of food standards needs in Asian countries should be carried out.
74. With regard to Latin America, it was noted that Argentina had had for the last 40 years a national code and that a Latin American Food Code had also been adopted by a number of countries of this region. The Argentine delegate informed the Commission that a new edition of the Latin American Food Code would be issued shortly. The Commission agreed that in order to complete the picture of food standard needs in the main developing areas of the world, an appropriate survey should also be made for Latin America.
