37. The Committee noted that at its 19th Session it had had for discussion the IUPAC/ISO/AOAC Harmonized Guidelines for Internal Quality Control in Analytical Chemistry Laboratories. As it had been informed that the harmonized guidelines had been planned to be further considered by IUPAC in May 1994, the Committee had agreed that after a revised document was adopted by IUPAC, the Committee should consider the document with a view towards adopting it for Codex purposes.
38. The Committee was informed that IUPAC had adopted and published the finalized harmonized guidelines. Currently ISO and AOAC were reviewing the document with the goal of harmonization with IUPAC. The Delegation of the United Kingdom stated that the harmonized guidelines was the third of such documents that were elaborated by the IUPAC’s Inter-divisional Working Party, the first two having been already adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Delegation stressed that the document was intended to be of an advisory nature as opposed to a mandatory nature of protocol.
39. The Delegation of Sweden suggested that it was sufficient to include the harmonized guidelines into the recommendations made to the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Certification and Inspection Systems on development of objective criteria for assessing the competence of testing laboratories involved in the import and export control of foods (see para. 23). However, the majority of delegations preferred formal adoption by the Commission so that there would be guidance on internal quality control procedures available to Codex.
Status of the Harmonized Guidelines for Internal Quality Control in Analytical Chemistry Laboratories
40. Recognising the advisory nature of the document, the Committee recommended the Harmonized Guidelines[15], to the Commission for adoption for Codex purposes.
