51. A report of the ad hoc Working Group on Endorsement was introduced by its chairman, Dr. W. Horwitz (USA). Dr. G. Diachenko (USA) served as rapporteur. The following Member Countries and International Organizations had been represented: Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, AOAC, IDF, ISO, IUPAC and OIV. The Group had considered: (i) Type of Codex General Methods for Contaminants adopted by the Commission at its 21st Session; (ii) Codex Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CAC/RMs); and (iii) Methods of Analysis for Commodity Standards (except those for sugars, fats and oils[19]).
52. Concerning Codex Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CAC/RMs), it was recommended that the Commodity Committees be advised to consider replacing some of the methods with more modern ones as appropriate and replace the CAC/RM numbers with the original literature references, if possible. The Committee agreed to recommend to the Commission the deletion of the CAC/RM numbering system. International organizations whose methods were contained in the list of CAC/RMs were invited to review their methods and to communicate any proposed updated reference citations to the Codex Secretariat as AOAC and ICUMSA had done.
53. The following remarks were made and agreed during the discussions on Codex General Methods and methods for Commodity Standards:
(a) The method for iron in edible oils and fats (IUPAC (1988) 1st Suppl. 2.631, AOAC 990.05) should be classified as Type II;54. The Codex General Methods for Contaminants along with their assigned Types and the methods for Commodity Standards considered are attached as Part I and Part II, respectively, of Appendix IV, together with detailed notes for some of the methods.(b) The term “except edible oils and fats” should be added to the other method for iron (NMKL No. 139, 1991);
(c) The reference to Pure and Applied Chemistry should be changed to IUPAC 7th Ed. (1988) 1st Suppl. for methods used for oils and fats:
(d) ISO 8294:1994 (for Cu, Fe, Ni in edible oils) should be added in the list as it was equivalent to AOAC 990.05 and ISO 12193:1944 (for Pb in edible oils and fats) as it was equivalent to AOAC 994.02;
(e) As the Guideline Level for aflatoxin in peanuts intended for further processing was currently at Step 6, it should be so indicated in the “provision” column; and
(f) Literature references should be included in notes where other method(s) was (were) referred to in the text.
55. The Committee agreed to set up a new ad hoc Working Group under the chairmanship of the Delegation of the USA at its next session.
