37. The Commission had before it three Secretariat papers containing information on food standards and food legislation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These papers were revised versions of the Secretariat papers on this subject which had been discussed by the Commission at its fifth and sixth sessions.
38. The delegation of Ghana stated that of the 74 Member Countries of the Commission, 44 were developing countries. The Commission and the governing bodies of FAO and WHO should consider ways and means of lending more practical assistance to the special needs of Africa to develop sound basic food legislation and food standards. African countries either had no food standards or regulations or had legislation that was out of date. There was a serious lack of trained personnel and training facilities and insufficient coordination between the services concerned. There were now 16 African Member Countries of the Commission, but not all of them were in a position to participate fully in its work. This was partly due to financial reasons and partly because the African countries did not have a sufficient number of trained personnel in the fields dealt with by the various Codex Committees, but it was also because much of the work of the Committees had only a tenuous relationship to the food situation in their countries. The Commission should aim, therefore, at closing the gap between the developed and developing countries in the field of food legislation and food control.
39. The delegation of Ghana added that Africa appeared to be the only geographical region where there was very little development of national Codex work and no attempt being made to harmonize national food legislations and standards. Most of the problems to be dealt with in Africa related to food hygiene, bacteriological examination of foods, food additives, pesticide residues and food labelling. There was an important need to deal with the broad principles of food legislation suited to the needs of Africa.
40. At the Sixth Session of the Commission, Ghana had put forward the proposal that in order to avoid the creation of varying national food regulations in Africa, (a) a Coordinating Committee for Africa should be set up, (b) competent consultants in food legislation under a United Nations development programme of assistance to African countries should be recruited, and (c) a short-term training programme for nationals of developing countries at FAO or WHO or other agencies dealing with Codex work should be organized. Although the Commission, at its sixth session, considered that it was premature to set up a Coordinating Committee for Africa, there was at least a need to establish a nucleus for Codex work in Africa. In the absence of a Coordinating Committee for Africa, it would be very helpful if the Secretariat could study closely the assistance needed by African countries in the elaboration of national food legislation and standards, with particular reference to imports, exports and traditional foods moving in intra-regional trade which require control in the matter of hygienic and bacteriological requirements. The delegation of Ghana suggested, in connection with the future work of the Codex Committees dealing with food hygiene, labelling, additives and contaminants, pesticide residues and also in connection with the subject of weights and measures, that simple but specific questionnaires might be sent to African countries, so that even though these countries might not be able to attend the sessions of the Codex Committees concerned, the Committees would have the necessary data to enable them to give due consideration to the needs of these countries.
41. The other African countries represented at the session indicated that they held similar views to those of Ghana regarding Africa's needs in the field of basic food legislation and food standards. They also supported the suggestion that a Coordinating Committee for Africa be set up. It was stated that each region in Africa had its own needs in this field. Some African delegations pointed out that, given the limited resources of Africa in the field of trained personnel, laboratory facilities and food technology they might not be in a position, for some time to come, to accept international standards which were too advanced or too sophisticated. The international standards should be relevant to conditions in Africa and should not be difficult to enforce.
42. The delegation of Nigeria stressed the importance of providing expert advice and more frequent technical training courses for participants from the developing countries. The delegation of Nigeria also considered that there was a need for FAO and WHO to step up their activities in the field of technical assistance programmes, both in the form of package assistance projects and technical training courses for the developing countries. The delegation of Nigeria attached great importance to the provision of training facilities for officials from the developing countries, and expressed the hope that the developed countries might make available more of such training facilities.
43. A number of delegations from the developed countries also supported the view that the special needs of the developing countries should be accommodated as far as possible within the framework of the Food Standards Programme. The delegation of France suggested that, in order to assist the international trade of the developing countries, governments of developing countries might be permitted to accept Codex standards in respect of their international trade only, thus placing them in a position to have less sophisticated standards for internal use. The delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany suggested that help be extended to the developing countries by way of assistance projects in the field of consumer protection, including food standards. Some delegations suggested that UNDP projects were one of the ways in which this could be achieved. The delegation of the U.S.A. thought that the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene might perhaps be in a position to elaborate codes of hygienic practice suited to the needs of the African countries, and indicated that this matter would be brought to the attention of the Chairman of that Committee.
44. The Secretariat informed the Commission that both FAO and WHO were fully aware of the problems facing the developing countries in the field of food legislation and food standards work generally. A report from an FAO expert who had recently carried out a survey in this field in five African countries tended to confirm the views expressed by the delegation of Ghana and other African countries. The delegation of Nigeria suggested that this survey be extended to other African countries. FAO had reviewed, on request, proposals for draft food legislation and draft standards in one of the African countries and had put forward suggestions. It was only in relatively recent times that such requests had been made. There had also been discussions with UNDP, and the possibility of arranging assistance to developing countries under technical assistance and bilateral aid programmes was being explored. There had also been some contact with the Economic Commission for Africa and the Organization for African Unity. Details of technical assistance afforded by FAO in the fields of food control, standardization and methods of analysis to the developing countries were given to the Commission. FAO was participating in 27 major projects in various fields of food and nutrition, with 132 field experts, covering 23 countries. There were 10 other major projects in an advanced stage of preparation. Exclusive of this, technical support was being provided by FAO for about 140 projects. While many of these projects covered one or more aspects of food control to a varying degree, the particular attention of the Commission was drawn to one project which was the only one so far dealing exclusively with food control. The project, which was a three-year one, was in Saudi-Arabia, and it covered the setting up of laboratories, training of food analysts and food inspectors, advising on food standards, food legislation and methods of analysis and sampling.
45. The representative of WHO pointed out that WHO was well aware of the fact that tropical and sub-tropical countries had problems of their own, which were related to climatic conditions, ecological factors, eating habits, and other factors. In the overall programme of WHO, there were many activities, which were of interest to African, Latin American and Asian countries, in food safety and control, hygiene and associated public health matters. They consisted notably of advisory services to various countries requesting assistance, the convening of seminars, the issue of reports of several meetings of expert committees, the exchange of research workers, and the arranging of fellowships. Three seminars had been convened recently, at which participants from Asia, Latin America and certain African countries were present. A seminar was being planned for participants from Africa, to be held in 1972, at which specific problems relating to food hygiene and the prevention of food-borne diseases would be considered. Food standardization and legislation within the framework of the Codex Programme would also be discussed. Research, supported by WHO, covered, inter alia, the elaboration of simple procedures for examination of foods which would be of interest to the developing countries. A new project “Socio-economic consequences of the zoonoses” had been adopted recently by the World Health Assembly, which would take into account the losses on meat and milk due to zoonoses.
46. The Commission considered that:
the question how best to make advice and assistance available to the developing countries in the field of food legislation, standards, training of personnel, and the setting up of proper laboratory facilities for enforcement was a matter for FAO and WHO;
the work of the Commission was relevant to the needs of the developing countries in that (i) Codex standards would afford consumer protection to the developing countries, particularly in respect of imports, and (ii) the question of developing and reaching agreement on regional standards for traditional products moving in intra-African trade and the need for avoiding diversification of standards and food legislations was one falling within the competence of the Commission.
The Commission also recognized the need for advice to the developing countries in the field of basic food legislation.
47. The Commission noted that out of an African membership of 16, six Member Countries present at the session had requested the setting-up of a Coordinating Committee for Africa. A seventh, Senegal, had made a similar request at the Sixth Session of the Commission. The Commission instructed the Commission's Secretariat to communicate with the remaining African Member Countries in order to obtain their views on the question of setting up a Coordinating Committee for Africa. The Commission thought that, as an alternative to setting up a Coordinating Committee for Africa, consideration might be given to setting up a Coordinator for Africa. The Commission considered that if replies were received in good time, the Executive Committee might be in a position at its next session to put forward some practical recommendations to the Commission on this matter. The Commission noted that the Secretariat hoped to be in a position to put forward, in due course, positive proposals to the governing bodies of FAO and WHO as to how best to meet the needs of the African countries.
48. As regards the region of Asia, a number of delegations from this region stated that the information given in the Secretariat paper dealing with this region could still be brought more up-to-date, and some delegations gave recent data on their food trade, standardization activities and food legislation. In order to achieve this, the Commission agreed that consideration should be given to the possibility of convening a regional seminar on food standards and legislation for Asia.
49. A number of delegations from the region of Latin America also stated that the information given in the Secretariat paper dealing with this region could still be brought more up-to-date, and some delegations gave recent data on their food trade, standardization activities and food legislation. Concerning one of the territories mentioned in Annex I of document ALINORM 70/31, the delegations of the Argentine and the United Kingdom made statements which appear in Appendix V of this Report. During the session, a corrigendum to ALINORM 70/31 was issued using the terminology contained in the UN Terminology Bulletin No. 250 of 1st April 1969. The necessity for grouping together countries with similar food habits and economies, in order to stimulate their participation in food standardization work was mentioned by the delegation of Cuba. The Cuban delegation pointed out that some of the developing countries might encounter difficulties in applying Codex standards. The delegation of Trinidad and Tobago considered it important that Codex standards should not be too sophisticated since this would increase the difficulty of enforcement. The delegation of Cuba expressed the view that it was mainly the consumers in the developing countries who were most in need of health protection.
50. The Commission expressed the wish that the DirectorsGeneral of FAO and WHO draw the attention of the forthcoming regional conferences of FAO and WHO to the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
