131. The Commission received a progress report from the Chairman, Mr. Th. C.J.M. Rijssenbeek (Netherlands), concerning the Tenth Session of the Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products. At that time, 71 countries had accepted the Code of Principles, 65 countries had accepted the Standard for Milk Powder, 46 countries had accepted the Standards for Butter and Sweetened Condensed Milk, 45 countries had accepted the Standards for Butteroil and Evaporated Milk, 33 countries had accepted the General Standard for Cheese and 18 countries the Standard for Whey Cheeses. On average, some 45 countries had accepted the Standards for Sampling and Analysis. In addition, the Commission noted that International Individual Standards for the cheese varieties Cheddar, Danablu, Danbo, Edam, Gouda, Havarti and Samsoe had been accepted by 10 to 16 countries and that governments had been asked to accept Standards for the varieties Cheshire, Emmentaler and Gruyère. The Chairman of the Committee briefly referred to other matters which had been considered at the Tenth Session.
132. Some delegations during the Commission's discussions questioned the need to elaborate too great a number of individual standards for cheeses, particularly as regards cheeses with very similar characteristics. The Chairman of the Committee reported that widespread interest had been shown in the cheese standards, emphasizing on the one hand the need to protect the consumer especially as regards the practice of marketing cheese with different characteristics under the same name, and on the other hand the Committee's intention to limit the number of standards to the minimum necessary.
133. Some delegations further expressed their doubts as to whether the experts attending the meeting of the Committee were in a position to discuss the problem of “appellation d'origine” with sufficient authority because of the close link which existed between this matter and the international law of industrial property. With regard to “appellation d'origine”, the Chairman of the Committee reported that this problem had been under discussion by the Committee for many years. This subject would be considered at the next meeting of the Committee possibly for the last time. Any conclusions proposed by the Committee on “appellation d'origine” would be submitted to governments for their consideration.
134. The Commission had before it the Report of the Eleventh Session of the Executive Committee which had been held at FAO Headquarters in Rome on 19 February 1968, and which is set out in Appendix III to this Report. The Committee generally approved the contents of the Report, and drew the particular attention of Chairmen of Codex Committees to the recommendations of the Executive Committee regarding the operation of the Guidelines (paragraph 12 of Appendix III). On the subject of the relationship between the Commission and the Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products, the Commission noted that the Executive Committee had redrafted paragraph 10 of the Report of the First Session of the Commission in order to clarify its meaning which had been found to be obscure, and in order to take account of existing practice in the relationship between the Committee of Government Experts and the Codex General Subject Committees. It was pointed out to the Commission by the Executive Committee that the redraft which it proposed did not contain any change of substance. The original text of paragraph 10 reads as follows:
“The Commission decided to treat the present Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products as a Committee of the whole of the Commission, under Rule IX.1(a) of its Rules of Procedure, having exclusive competence for all questions concerning milk and milk products. Decisions of this Committee, which is already open to all Member Countries of FAO and WHO, would therefore be decisions of the Commission in this specified field, subject to review in plenary if requested. In this way the recommendations of the Joint FAO/WHO Conference on Food Standards (see its Report, para. 39) were given full effect. The costs of the Committee were already met from the regular budget of FAO. At its Second Session, the Commission would take up the possible republication in the Codex of the Code of Principles and its associated standards.”
The following was the text proposed by the Executive Committee at its Eleventh Session:
“The Commission decided to treat the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products as a Committee under Rule IX.1(a) of the Rules of Procedure. The Committee would have the right to consider all standards relating to milk and milk products, to pass them through all the steps of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Standards and to submit them to governments for acceptance, except that all decisions of the Committee, whether on standards or not, would be subject to review by the Commission at the request of any Member of the Commission. Standards formulated by the Committee of Government Experts are subject to the procedure for endorsement of certain provisions by Codex General Committee as laid down in paragraph 13 of the Guidelines for Codex Committees, pp. 47 and 48 of the Report of the Fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, with the exception of those for Sampling and Methods of Analysis.”
135. The delegation of the U.S.A. proposed that the redraft be amended in the following way: insert the words “first eight” in place of the word “all” between the words “… through the” and “Steps of the Procedure …” in the sixth line of the English version, and delete the words “and to submit them to governments for acceptance” in the seventh line. The delegation of France proposed that the redraft be amended in the following way: delete all that follows after the words “…milk and milk products …” in the fifth line (English version) and insert a new sentence to read as follows: “When a sufficiently wide measure of agreement has been reached in the Committee on a specific standard, the Committee will report to the Commission, and the Commission will then be responsible for applying to the standard the appropriate acceptance procedure provided for in the Rules of the Commission”. The delegation of Denmark questioned the statement by the Executive Committee that the redraft did not contain any change of substance regarding the competence of the Committee. They suggested that the question be discussed further in the Committee of Government Experts before the Commission made its final interpretation.
136. Since a number of delegations considered that governments should be given an opportunity to reflect on the matter, the Commission decided to take no final decision on the redraft at this stage. It was agreed that advice should be sought from the next session of the Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products, and that the contents of the present report, together with the views of the Committee of Government Experts, should be referred to governments for consideration. In the light of government comments, the whole subject would be reviewed by the Commission at its next session.
137. The Commission had before it a paper, prepared by the Secretariat, on the subject of Codex standards for edible ices. The Commission was generally of the opinion that, on the basis of information presently available to it, the international trade in edible ices did not appear to be such as to warrant the elaboration of a Codex standard or standards for these products. In consequence, the Commission generally took the view that the elaboration of Codex standards for edible ices would have to be justified by considerations relating to the protection of the health of consumers. Although noting the recommendation contained in paragraph 8 of the Report of the Tenth Session of the Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products as to the procedure to be followed in the elaboration of standards for edible ices based on milk fat and edible ices based on non-milk fat, the general view of the Commission was that one body should be responsible for the development of standards for both types of ices. The Commission decided to defer taking any decision on the establishment of a Codex Committee on Edible Ices and noted that the Government of Sweden would still be willing to undertake responsibility for such a Committee should it be decided to set one up at the next session of the Commission. The Commission noted that the Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products would, at its next session, be discussing the latest Draft Standard of the International Dairy Federation for Ices Based on Milk-Fat, and agreed that the Commission's views on the subject of edible ices generally, particularly on the need to establish a justification for the elaboration of a standard for edible ices, whether based on milk fat or on non-milk fat, should be brought to the attention of the Committee.
