Food Law News - FAO/WHO/WTO/Codex - 2010
3 – 7 May 2010
CODEX - 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling Quebec City, Canada
The Summary and Conclusions of the 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling are as follows:
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Matters for adoption by the 33rd Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission:
- Proposed draft amendment to the Guidelines on nutrition labelling (CAC/GL 2-1985) at Steps 5/8 (new section 4 on Principles and criteria for legibility of nutrition labelling (para. 78, Appendix IV) Proposed draft revision of the Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling (CAC/GL 2-1985) concerning the list of nutrients that are always declared on a voluntary or mandatory basis (at Step 5) (para 53 and Appendix II).
- Editorial amendment to the Guidelines on Nutrition and Health Claims (CAC/GL 23-1997) – table for conditions for nutrient contents (para. 111 and Appendix VI).
- Deletion of section 8 and related text from the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods (para. 139 and Appendix VIII).
- Alignment of the General standard for the labelling of prepackaged food (CODEX STAN 1-1985) with the Codex international numbering system in CAC/GL 36-1989 (para 167 and Appendix XI).
- New work on: organic aquaculture (para 186 and Appendix XIII); a definition for nutrient reference values (para 191 and Appendix XII) and on the establishment of claims for sugars, salt/sodium and trans-fatty acids (paras 96 – 98 and Appendix V).
Other Matters of Interest to the Commission
- The Committee: Endorsed the labelling provisions in several Draft Standards, thereby allowing their adoption by the Commission (para 20);
- Retained at Step 7 the Draft Amendment to the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods: Annex I (inclusion of ethylene for other products) (para 119 and Appendix VII). Created an electronic working group for a more structured approach for the review of the Guidelines (para 126) and that this group would review substances recently submitted: spinosad, potassium carbonate and copper octanoate (para 125);
- Agreed to append the results of its discussions on mandatory nutrition labelling to the report for possible use by FAO in capacity building tools (para 78 and Appendix III);
- Returned to Step 6 the Draft Amendment to the General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods:
- Definitions (para 139 and Appendix IX) and returned to Step 3 the Proposed Draft Recommendations for the Labelling of Food and Food Ingredients Obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/ Genetic Engineering (para 161 and Appendix X);
- Agreed to further examine issues related to exchange of information between competent authorities when suspecting fraud concerning organic products (para 181).
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