49. Concerning the work of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, the FAO and WHO representatives informed the Commission regarding the 15th and 16th meetings held, respectively, in Rome from 16 to 24 June 1971 and in Geneva from 4 to 12 April 1972.
50. The 1971 meeting reviewed the available toxicity data for certain enzyme preparations, for selected modified starch compounds and a few substances of special interest. In the case of enzyme preparations of animal and plant origin and for the starch compounds, it recommended that their use be limited to good manufacturing practice. For other substances, acceptable daily intake levels were assigned to some caramel colours and fatty acid soya bean esters, propylene glycol alginate and certain salts of stearoyl lactylate. Of interest was the re-examination of the toxicity data for tin and stannous chloride. No acceptable daily intake was assigned, but it was decided that current levels found in food did not pose an acute public health hazard.
51. At the meeting in 1972, besides some miscellaneous food additives, such as amaranth, caramel colours from ammonia process, diethylpyrocarbonate and octyl gallates, the Committee gave major consideration to the following items on the agenda:
52. It was for the first time that the Committee had taken into consideration the total body burden of these metallic contaminants from food and other sources, i.e. air and water. In contrast to the customary procedure for assigning acceptable daily intake (ADI) values for food additives, provisional tolerable weekly intakes were recommended for these contaminants. This was done (i) because these metals and their derivatives accumulated in the body, (ii) because of the narrow margin of safety between the levels of these metals, to which some segments of the general population are exposed, and the levels that are toxic, and (iii) because of some uncertainty as to the health hazards at exposure levels slightly below those known to cause toxicity. The Committee recommended the development of an integrated programme at an international level for the systematic collection of national data on levels of contaminants in food. It also gave some general guidelines on the establishment of control services with regard to food contamination based on toxicological evaluation.
53. The Joint Meeting of the FAO Working Party and the WHO Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues which met in 1971 considered a number of pesticides and clarified the meaning of the term “good agricultural practice”. Special attention was directed to the problem of residues of the bromide ion. It recommended that the tolerance for the ion be retained for raw cereals but be held in abeyance for other foods. No change in the acceptable daily intake or the tolerance levels was recommended for DDT. The Meeting considered that the calculation of the potential daily intake levels of pesticide residues be continued.
54. In response to the request of the Codex Committees on Food Additives and on Pesticide Residues and in addition to the Expert Committee above, a consultation on the potential daily intake of additives, pesticide residues and contaminants in foods was recently held in Geneva. Recommendations to WHO and to Governments were made which should clarify the approaches that should be used in further dietary surveys and calculations.
55. In response to a request from the International Project in the field of Food Irradiation and the FAO/IAEA, an inter-secretariat meeting was held in Geneva in October 1972 to assess the roles of the international organizations in respect to the Project and the role of WHO in particular as the health agency. Recommendations were made which should lead to improved coordination and which should strengthen the WHO advisory role in respect to studies undertaken by the Project.
56. Data was being collected by interested groups in the Pacific and in other regions of the world to be used for an assessment of the risk of human intoxication from poisonous fish. One of such centres was the FAO/WHO International Reference Centre, Colton, in California, USA. A project as proposed by FAO/WHO had been submitted to UNDP to support research in this area in order to ensure the safety of this source of food.
57. FAO was assisting developing countries in creating or strengthening the necessary infra-structure for food control at a national level. This assistance was given in the form of providing expertise to draft the basic food legislation, national food standards, establishment of laboratories, training of laboratory and inspectorate staff and general advice on organizational matters. The developement of such national food control systems should enable the developing countries to be in a better position to accept and implement the Codex standards.
58. Besides the national projects, regional and sub-regional seminars on food control had been held or were planned to be held. A Joint FAO/WHO/UNICEF sub-regional seminar was held in Teheran in April 1972 where 6 countries participated. A second sub-regional seminar in this area was scheduled to be held in May 1973 when 10 countries were likely to participate. A joint FAO/WHO seminar was proposed for the francophone countries of West Africa which was likely to be financed under FAO/Government and Co-operative Programme. Efforts were being made to hold another seminar for the Asia and Far East region subject to the availability of funds from extra budgetary sources. The recent FAO Regional Conference held in New Delhi during October 1972 (from 17 to 27) had also recommended the holding of such a seminar which should give greater emphasis to matters of food hygiene and sanitation.
59. The Legislation Branch of FAO had been giving information on legislation in the form of various publications, research studies and preparation of draft enactments to assist member governments in drawing up specific regulations.
60. As a result of the re-organization within FAO and especially within the Food Policy and Nutrition Division forming a Food Standards and Control Service, it was the aim to further strengthen and accelerate activities in this field.
61. In connection with paragraph 59 above, the Commission noted with satisfaction the statement which had been made at the opening of the session by the Director of the Food Policy and Nutrition Division, and requested the competent authorities in FAO and WHO to continue to judge the most efficacious levels and means of assistance to the developing countries in the field of food legislation.
62. The Commission noted that the recommendations of the UN Conference on the Human Environment given in Appendix IV to this Report were of special significance to its work. In accordance with one of the recommendations FAO and WHO were in the process of developing a detailed proposal for a Joint FAO/WHO International Monitoring and Data Retrieval Programme in the field of food contamination. This would provide a suitable plan of action to enable the generation, accumulation and evaluation of sufficient comparable data in selected areas of food and water contamination to determine necessary follow-up action programmes in combating such contamination. The Programme will cover both microbiological and chemical contamination of food and will necessarily be based on the national monitoring programmes in this field. After evaluation, the dissemination of information will be done through the existing machinery of the two Organizations and through the Commission and its subsidiary bodies.
63. The 25th World Health Assembly decided, conscious of the health hazards caused by the dangerous increase in the pollution of the environment, to give specific recommendations in this matter to its Member States and to request WHO to intensify its activities within its food hygiene programme, including intensification of its participation in the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme.
64. An informal consultation on the principles of organization and management of food hygiene programmes was held in Geneva in December 1971. The consultation made recommendations concerning analysis of factors bearing on food hygiene, legislation, training and education including specialization, modern systems of planning, laboratory activities, surveillance, and preparation of a publication on the organization and management of food hygiene programmes.
65. The training of specialists in food hygiene had continued in Kenya where courses in meat inspection have been given annually since 1966. The delegations of Ghana and Kenya stressed the importance of expanding these training activities and reference was made to the need to initiate similar activities in West Africa. WHO had also paid attention to further developing post-graduate training in food microbiology, especially with a view to responding to the needs of developing countries. Courses in this field would be initiated in 1973.
66. Work on the unification of microbiological procedures and on the examination of foods, including sampling methods as well as microbiological specifications for a number of food products, had proceeded in collaboration with, amongst other, International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF). As a result of this cooperation, the publication “Microorganisms in Foods - II. Sampling for Microbiological Analysis; Principles and Specific Applications” was now being finalized and it was planned to publish it in 1973.
67. The inter-laboratory studies supported by WHO on methods for detection of the most important food-borne pathogens had made good progress. A paper reporting the work on Salmonellae had been received for publication in the WHO Bulletin.
68. The Fourth Informal Consultation on Food Virology held in Geneva and Brno had reviewed the current status of the WHO Food Virology Programme which has been carried out in cooperation with research workers in Brno, Czechoslovakia and Madison, Wisconsin, USA. A retrieval system was presently in preparation which would enable a world-wide use of the collected data and findings.
69. Within the field of food microbiology, WHO supported research had been extended to cover problems associated with mycotoxins. The collaborating research laboratories are situated in Copenhagen and Moscow.
70. WHO has also supported research activities in various countries of the world with respect to control of some of the most important zoonoses for which food may serve as an important vehicle for transmission to man, such as brucellosis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, echinococcosis (hydatidosis), cysticercosis-taeniasis, trichinosis and other zoonotic diseases. The Commission underlined the advantage of an intensification of the collaboration between the various international bodies participating in the elaboration of microbiological methods of analysis in the field of food products.
71. For the year 1973, four meetings were being planned, partly in cooperation with FAO and the Secretariat of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, dealing with various aspects of food hygiene:
72. The Commission requested the Secretariat to make available to Members of the Commission a list of WHO publications of interest to the Commission, up-dated from time to time, as appropriate.
73. The delegate of Czechoslovakia drew attention to the need for close and effective cooperation of WHO with all Codex Alimentarius bodies, and to the necessity for expanding the responsibility of WHO for Codex Standards, with a view to protecting the health of consumers.
