77. The Coordinator for Europe, Dr. R. Wildner (Austria), introduced the Report of the Fifth Session which dealt with the following commodities: honey, natural mineral waters, soups and broths, edible fungi and dietetic foods. The discussions of the Commission on these subjects are recorded separately later in this Report, except for edible fungi and soups and broths which follow:
78. As recommended by the Fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission the Proposed Draft Provisional Standards for Edible Fungi and Fungus Products, for Dried Edible Fungi and for Fresh Fungus Chanterelle, which were prepared by Poland, had been sent for comments to governments. These comments were taken into account by Poland and incorporated in the standards. At the Fifth Session of the Coordinating Committee for Europe, the general standard was briefly considered and the two other standards were made available to the Commission. The Commission was informed that work on cultivated mushrooms had progressed considerably in the Working Party on Standization of Perishable Foodstuffs of the UN Economic Commission for Europe's Committee on Agricultural Problems and that a revised draft would shortly be presented to that body. The Commission was also advised that the Codex Committee on Processed Fruits and Vegetables was dealing with canned mushrooms. At the above-mentioned session of the Coordinating Committee for Europe, Japan had presented a draft on Shiitake, a special wood or forest mushroom cultivated on trees.
79. The Commission considered the various possibilities of continuing the important work which Poland had carried out in the elaboration of Standards for Edible Fungi and noted the interest in these products of the many countries which had sent comments to Poland. The Committee decided that the general standard and the two individual standards dealing with dried fungi and Chanterelle should be considered as having attained Step 3 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Regional Standards. After taking into account any further comments which might be made on these three standards, the Commission requested that the Standard for Chanterelle be put in the Format of Codex Standards and be considered at the next session of the Coordinating Committee for Europe at Step 4. The Secretariat of the Commission was requested also to send the Shiitake Standard to governments for comments at Step 3. All mushroom standards could then be brought to the same level of advancement in the Procedure for the Elaboration of Standards. It was hoped that at the next session of the Coordinating Committee governments would include in their delegations experts on mushrooms, so as to enable the standards to reach Step 5 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Regional Standards. The Commission could then, at its next session, decide whether the General Standard, the Standard for Dried Edible Fungi and the Standard for Shiitake should be widened to become world-wide standards. Standards for fresh mushrooms would, in all probability, have to remain regional standards.
80. The Commission was informed by the delegation of Switzerland that Switzerland would be willing to assume the chairmanship of and financial responsibility for a Codex Committee on Soups and Broths. The usual facilities given by host countries would be made available for this Committee. The significant expansion in international trade in soups and broths was noted by the Commission. During the discussion on this matter, it was pointed out that regulations varied widely in the various countries and that new products such as frozen soups were gaining increased importance. There were, however, a number of reasons which led the Commission to decide not to proceed at this time with the establishing of a new Committee. First there was the question what would be appropriate terms of reference and scope of work for such a Committee, in view of the fact that most of these products were proprietary manufactures. It was pointed out that in view of the widely varying composition of soups and broths in the different countries, the adoption of a standard might present difficulties and that it might not, in fact, be necessary to provide for more than labelling and additive requirements. In this connection it was mentioned that the draft directive of the European Economic Community on soups and broths appeared to go beyond the scope of these two products, and that it would be necessary to define exactly what was understood by the terms “soups” and “broths”. It was further pointed out that the Fourteenth Conference of FAO had recommended that the Codex Alimentarius Commission should first complete some of the work in hand before embarking on new projects. Standards for soups and broths could not claim a high position in the Commission's work priorities as they were also at present of little interest to developing countries. The Commission decided, therefore, to proceed further only after a thorough investigation had been made and full information had become available on the regulations on broths and soups in the various countries and the importance of these products in world trade. The Secretariat of the Commission undertook to prepare such a study in conjunction with the delegation of Switzerland and to examine the situation in the various countries as regards legislation and trade. The Secretariat undertook to distribute this paper to governments for comments and place this subject on the agenda of the next session of the Commission.
