OTHER BUSINESS AND FUTURE WORK (Agenda Item 15)

METHODS OF ANALYSIS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF FOOD ADDITIVES AND CONTAMINANTS IN FOODS
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE INVENTORY OF PROCESSING AIDS
PACKAGING PROVISIONS IN THE REVISED STANDARD FOR FOODGRADE SALT
AD HOC WORKING GROUP FOR CONTAMINANTS
DIOXINS

METHODS OF ANALYSIS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF FOOD ADDITIVES AND CONTAMINANTS IN FOODS

111. No comments were received in response to CL 1997/6-FAC, which requested additional methods of analysis for the determination of food additives and contaminants in foods based on specific criteria (ALINORM 97/12, para. 28). The Committee agreed to continue inviting comments for consideration at future sessions under Other Business.

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE INVENTORY OF PROCESSING AIDS

112. No comments were received in response to CL 1997/6-FAC, which requested amendments to the Inventory of Processing Aids. The Committee agreed to continue inviting comments for consideration at future sessions under Other Business.

PACKAGING PROVISIONS IN THE REVISED STANDARD FOR FOODGRADE SALT

113. The delegation of Malaysia provided a verbal summary of their proposal raised at the 29th CCFAC (ALINORM 97/12A, para. 6) to examine a proposal to include packaging provisions for maintaining the stability of iodised salt in the revised Standard for Food Grade Salt. The Committee agreed that the proposal would be appended to its report for circulation and comment at step 3 (Appendix XII).

AD HOC WORKING GROUP FOR CONTAMINANTS

114. In spite of the great amount of work the CCFAC had completed since 1988, a large number of contaminants were still on the agenda for consideration. Since the issue of contaminants presents difficulties both in regard to controlling contamination and in obtaining sufficient data for standard setting, the Chairperson proposed to install an ad hoc Working Group on Contaminants so sufficient progress could be made on this issue in future CCFAC meetings. The goals of the working group would be to:

• Progress the development and implementation of the General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food;
• Make recommendations to the plenary session on the issue of contaminants, and;
• Ensure consistency with other international activities in the decision making approaches relating to contaminants.

115. The ad hoc Working Group on Contaminants would have the same status as the ad hoc Working Group on the General Standard for Food Additives. The terms of reference of the Working Group would be to:

• Propose refinement and implementation of the General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Foods, and;
• Make proposals to JECFA for contaminants to be evaluated.

116. The Committee accepted the proposal of the Chairperson and nominated Denmark as Chair, Brazil as Vice-Chair and Australia and the Netherlands as rapporteurs.

DIOXINS

117. At the request of the Dutch delegation, the Committee agreed to the offer of the Netherlands to prepare a discussion paper on dioxins for circulation, comment and consideration at the 31^st CCFAC. Japan informed the Committee that monitoring data was available.