. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/104 
6 July 2010 
 (10-3674) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
INFORMATION ON ACTIVITIES OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION 
 
  The following information was provided by the Codex Alimentarius Commission
 at the 
TBT Committee meeting of 23-24 June 2010.  
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  I. CODEX SESSIONS SINCE THE LAST MEETING OF THE TBT COMMITTEE 
(MARCH 2010) 
(a) The 42
nd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives (Beijing, China, 15-19 
March 2010) 
(b) The 26th Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles (Paris, France, 12-16 
April 2010) 
(c) The 42nd Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (Xian, China, 19-24 
April 2010) 
(d) The 4th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (Izmir, Turkey, 
26-30 April 2010) 
(e) The 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Fo od Labelling (Quebec City, Canada, 
3-7 May 2009) 
In particular, the TBT Committee may wish to note the following: 
1. The 31st session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling agreed to 
forward to the Codex Alimentarius Commission for adoption the Proposed Draft Guidelines on 
Performance Criteria and Validation of Methods fo r Detection, Identification and Quantification of 
Specific DNA Sequences and Specific Proteins in Foods , which is applicable, among other uses, to 
foods derived from biotechnology. The Committee also proceeded with its work on the revision of the 
Guidelines on Measurement Uncertainty  and proposed methods of analysis for certain health related 
substances in natural mineral waters.  
2. The 26th Session of the  Codex Committee on General Principles agreed to forward to the 
Commission for final adoption the Draft Revised Code of ethics for international trade in food 
including concessional and food aid transactions. The Committee completed its review of the risk 
principles developed by Codex committ ees regarding consistency with the Working Principles for 
Risk Analysis , and finalised other amendmen ts to the Procedural Manual, including on risk analysis, 
as proposed by Codex Committees. 
3. The 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling  finalised the  Proposed Draft 
Principles and criteria for legibility of nutrition labelling and considered other revision of the G/TBT/GEN/104 
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  Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling concerning the list of nutrients that are always declared on a 
voluntary or mandatory basis and other issues relate d to the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical 
Activity and Health. It finalised several amendments to the Guidelines for the Production, Processing, 
Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods and continued its discussions on the 
Labelling of Foods and Food Ingr edients Obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic 
Modification / Genetic Engineering. 
II. FORTHCOMING CODEX MEETINGS 
(a) The 64
th Session of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission 
(Geneva, Switzerland, 29 June – 2 July 2010) 
(b) The 33rd Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Geneva, Switzerland,  
5 - 9 July 2010) 
(c) The 19th Session of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods 
(Burlington (Vermont), United States of  America, 30 August - 3 September 2010) 
(d) The FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for No rth America and South West Pacific 
(Nuku’alofa, Tonga, 28 Se ptember – 1 October 2010) 
(e) The FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Europe (Warsaw, Poland,  
5 – 8 October 2010) 
(f) The 4th Session of the Ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial 
Resistance (Muju), Republic of Korea, 18-22 October 2010) 
(g) Codex Committee on Processed Fruits a nd Vegetables (Bali, Indonesia,  
25-29 October 2010) 
4. The Thirty-third Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission will consider several draft 
and proposed draft standards and related texts for ad option proposed by its subsidiary bodies, such as 
those indicated above. The Commission will also discuss financial and budgeta ry matters; strategic 
planning; relations between Codex and other international organizati ons such as OIE and ISO; private 
standards; the mid-term review and annual re port of the FAO/WHO Project and Trust Fund for 
Enhanced Participation in Codex. 
5. The 11th Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committees for North America and 
South West Pacific will consider matters arising from FAO, WHO, the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission and other Codex Committees, including th e outcome of the Codex Trust Fund mid-term 
review and activities of other intern ational and regional organizations.  The Committee will be discussing 
the implementation of the Strategic Plan for th e CCNASWP 2008-2013, the information submitted by 
countries in the region on consumer participation in  food standard setting ac tivities and on the use of 
Codex standards and related text s at the national and regional levels. The Committee will also 
considering a discussion paper on kava.  
6. The FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Europe  will consider the Implementation of 
the Codex Strategic Plan 2008 – 2013;  issues related to the implementation of Codex standards and 
other texts at national and regional level; food contro l situation and participation of consumers in the 
Codex standards setting; nutritional issues within th e Region and also other issues that are important 
to the region. 
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