335. The Commission had before it the Working Paper prepared by the United Kingdom (ALINORM 72/27) which included a revised text of a proposed draft general standard and comments by the United States of America (Addendum 1). It was noted that there appeared to be no disagreement among the Members of the Commission that all food should not be injurious to health or unfit, not adulterated and not sold so as to mislead or deceive the consumer. Since it appeared, however, that there was no consensus about the way in which suitable references to these matters might be included in the Codex and in particular whether they would form part of a mandatory requirement or a statement of principles, the Commission agreed to leave the question ‘on the table’. It was noted that any further action would need to involve the Committee on General Principles which was now fully committed with priority matters. In the meantime, the present and previous versions of the draft general standard would be available as a possible aid to those member countries which were in the process of developing basic food laws.
336. The Commission had before it a paper prepared by the Secretariat entitled “Coffee and the Consumer; Standards, Regulations and Control” (ALINORM 72/9). This document was a revised version of a draft paper which had been distributed in 1970 and had recieved comments from governments and a number of international organizations. This paper dealt with coffee, coffee products and substitutes in general, as well as with standards, and regulations for different coffee products on offer to the consumer. There was also mention in the paper of national, regional and international regulations on coffee, as well as data on international trade in coffee products. The paper also contained some suggestions concerning possible future work on standardization of coffee products at the international level. The delegate of Portugal drew attention to a correction which should be made in the paper regarding Portuguese national legislation.
337. Several delegates expressed the view that the Codex Alimentarius Commission might need to consider the creation of a new Codex Committee. The observer of IOCU pointed out that, although they had no objection to the idea of elaborating standards eventually for coffee products, it might be more useful not to consider coffee separately at this stage, but rather to consider stimulant foods in general, and to give high priority to products which are nutritionally more important. The views of the IOCU were supported by the delegate of the U.S.A. who proposed that this item be placed on the agenda of a future session of the Executive Committee for discussion on the question of whether or not there should be international standards for coffee products at a later stage. The delegate of the U.S.A. considered, however, that Codex Standards for coffee were not a priority matter. The delegate of Canada referred to the criteria for the establishment of work priorities and considered that, although some of the criteria regarding the extent of production and international trade in this product would be met, there were other criteria listed which would need to be considered in relation to these products, e.g. consumer protection from the point of view of health, genuineness of the product, the diversification of national legislations, amenability of the commodity to standardization and work already undertaken by other international organizations in this field. Several delegates referred to the work which ISO was currently doing in the fields of terminology, methods of analysis, and sampling for coffee and coffee products. It was also pointed out that a number of other bodies were already involved in international work on coffee from the economic, scientific and technological point of view.
338. The delegate of Brazil was of the opinion that the Codex Alimentarius Commission was the competent body to deal with the standardization of coffee to complement the work of ISO in this field. The delegate of France stated that the Commission should continue to prepare papers on stimulant beverages. He also mentioned that stimulant beverages were appreciated by consumers mainly for their attractive properties and that, in certain cases, the sensory properties were considered by nutritionists as important as nutritional properties themselves.
339. The delegate of Senegal referred to the nutritional aspects of coffee as mentioned in the paper, and pointed out that there was an increasing consumption of coffee in the world and that consumers should be informed as to the true nature of this product by proper labelling. The delegate of the Federal Republic of Germany was of the opinion, that although there was no urgent need for coffee standards, this subject should be examined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in the future.
340. On the proposal of the delegation of Switzerland, the Commission agreed that the subject of coffee, coffee products and substitutes should be dealt with in a similar way as had already been decided upon by the Commission for soups and broths. The delegate of France agreed to prepare, for the next session of the Commission, a complementary study on these products, in which the work priorities criteria as they appear in the Procedural Manual of the Commission would be fully taken into consideration. This preliminary work would be carried out in conjunction with the Association Scientifique International du Café, the headquarters of which are located in Paris and other interested international organizations. The Commission was in agreement with this procedure and agreed that this question would be further examined at its Tenth Session on the basis of the paper to be prepared by the delegate of France, with a view to reaching a conclusion regarding future work on coffee.
341. The delegate of India, referring to the document on coffee, suggested that a similar paper should be prepared on tea by the Secretariat. The Commission was informed that, although the Secretariat would have no difficulty in abstracting information on the international trade in tea, this study would require considerable information from producing and consuming countries concerning technology, standards and legislation. Furthermore, the financial situation of the Organization had led to the curtailment of certain studies previously requested by the Commission. The delegate of Senegal pointed out that other studies might be needed, such as on peanuts and other nuts in shell, and cola nuts which were currently in trade in the African region.
342. The delegates of India and the United Kingdom agreed that they would be prepared to give information to the Secretariat on the technical aspects of tea. On a proposal made by the delegate of Kenya, the Commission agreed that the Secretariat should send a questionnaire regarding tea to Codex Contact Points and that a background study on tea should be presented to the Commission at its Tenth Session.
343. The delegate of Brazil proposed that a Coordinating Committee for Latin America be established by the Commission, as provided for under Rule IX.1(b)2 of its Rules of Procedure. The delegate of Brazil indicated that the Members of the Latin American Region envisaged a practical and more flexible Coordinating Committee on a country rotation basis and pointed out that this would greatly facilitate the harmonization of food standards in the Latin American countries as well as be consistent with Resolution 9/72 of the Twelth FAO Regional Conference for Latin America held in Cali, Colombia, in September 1972.
344. The delegate of Cuba, in supporting this proposal, noted that most countries of Latin America were now members of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and that a Coordinating Committee would guarantee the effective participation of all the countries of the region, since, at the present time, with the existing organizations, this objective had not been achieved. Other delegates from the Member Countries of the Latin American Region present stated that they wholeheartedly supported this proposal and agreed that it would greatly facilitate the implementation of Codex standards. Other delegates of Member Countries outside the Region welcomed the Proposal and expressed their support. The delegate of Canada suggested that the assistance of the regional agency of WHO, the Pan-American Health Agency might be enlisted.
345. The Commission agreed in principle to the establishment of a Coordinating Committee for Latin America, but recognized that this was a matter having administrative and budgetary implications for FAO and WHO, and considered it would be necessary, as a first step, for the Directors-General of FAO and WHO to consider these implications. The Commission requested one of the Vice-Chairmen of the Executive Committee (Mr. E.M. Méndez of Mexico) and the Regional Representative for Latin America on the Executive Committee (Brazil), together with the Secretariat, to study this matter and submit detailed proposals to the next session of the Executive Committee. In accordance with Rule IX.9 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission, the Commission expressed the wish to have before it at its next session a report from the Directors-General of FAO and WHO on the administrative and financial implications of setting up a Coordinating Committee for Latin America, together with the recommendations of the Executive Committee.
346. The Commission considered the proposed provisional time-table of Codex Sessions for 1973–76 which had been drawn up by the Secretariat and was set out in the Appendix of document ALINORM 72/28. This time-table was a modified version of the one presented to the Commission at its Eighth Session in which the progress of work of the various Codex Committees and the wishes of host governments concerning the timing of sessions had been taken into account.
347. The tentative timetable of sessions up to the next session of the Commission was outlined as follows:
| 1973 | |
| January | - |
| February | - |
| March | [Natural Mineral Waters (5th)]1 |
| April | Codex/IOOC Table Olives (2nd) |
| May | Quick Frozen Foods(8th) Cocoa Products and Chocolate (10th) Food Hygiene (10th) Processed Fruits and Vegetables (10th) Food Labelling (8th) |
| June | Meat Hygiene (2nd) Meat (5th) |
| July | Executive Committee(19th) Fruit Juices (10th) |
| August | - |
| September | Milk and Milk Products (16th) Methods of Analysis and Sampling (8th) |
| October | African Food Standards Conference Fish and Fishery Products (8th) Edible Ices (1st) |
| November | General Principles (4th) Processed Meat Products (7th) FAO/WHO Conference on Food Additives and Contaminants |
| December | Food Additives (9th) Pesticide Residues (7th) |
| 1974 | |
| February | Dietetic Foods (8th) |
| March | Fats and Oils (7th) |
| April | Sugars (6th) |
| May | Food Hygiene (11th) Processed Fruits and Vegetables (11th) Food Labelling (9th) |
| June/July | Coordinating Committee for Africa (1st) Codex Alimentarius Commission (10th) |
1 See paragraph 221 of this Report.
The secretariat emphasized that this was a preliminary indication of the likely timing of sessions but that the precise dates and locations of meetings were subject to agreement in a number of cases with the host governments.
348. Several delegates were of the opinion that future time-tables should be drawn up in such a way that meetings of Commodity Committees would to the extent possible be grouped together and that subsequently the general subject Committees should meet. This would have the advantage that the general subject Committees could deal with the endorsement of particular sections of commodity standards prior to the meeting of the Commission. It was agreed that this line of thought should be borne in mind for the time-table to be presented to the Tenth Session of the Commission.
349. In this connection the proposal was made not to hold the meetings of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene and Food Labelling as planned in May 1973 but to move these to early 1974. The Commission, however, decided to leave the timetable for 1973 as it stood.
350. Reference was made to recommendations of the Ninth Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues that that Committee should meet at intervals not exceeding 12 months. The Commission expressed agreement in principle with this proposal, but further agreed that the date of the next session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues would depend on dates established for meetings of the Codex Committees on General Principles and Food Additives and the FAO/WHO Food Additives and Contaminants Conference.
351. The question was raised when and where the proposed Regional Food Standards Conference for Africa was to be held. The Secretariat informed the Commission that on the basis of information presently available the Conference might be held in Kenya in conjunction with an IBRD/IMF meeting and that as soon as possible the Members of the Commission would receive further information about this.
352. It was proposed that the Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene should meet in conjunction with the Codex Committee on Processed Meat Products to facilitate the travel of delegates from distant countries. Whereas it was agreed that in the future such meetings might be held in consecutive weeks, it was agreed that because of the dependance of the Processed Meat Products Committee on the Meat Hygiene Committee for some of its work, the 1973 meetings had to be separated from each other in order to enable the preparation of documents for the Processed Meat Products Committee. In these circumstances it had been agreed by the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany and New Zealand to hold the Codex Committees on Meat and on Meat Hygiene in consecutive weeks in June to facilitate participation of delegates at both sessions.
353. The Commission agreed that in principle every effort should be made to increase attendance from overseas delegates by linking the meetings of Committees covering subject matters related to each other. It was further agreed that the Executive Committee should examine at its next session the frequency and phasing of meetings of the Commission's subsidiary bodies and report on this matter to the Tenth Session of the Commission. The Commission was further of the opinion that the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products should after its 1973 session meet once in every eighteen months as was the case of the Commission.
