. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/GEN/119 
11 July 2011 
 (11-3397) 
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 15-16 June 2011. 
 
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I. CODEX SESSIONS SINCE THE LAST MEETING OF THE TBT COMMITTEE  
(24-25 MARCH 2011) 
(i) Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (Beijing, China, 4-9 April 2010) 
(ii) Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (Tromso, Norway, 11-16 
April 2011) 
(iii) Codex Committee on  Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (Mexico City, Mexico, 2-
6 May 2011) 
(iv) Codex Committee on Food Labelling (Que bec City, Canada, 9-13 May 2011) 
(v) FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for the Near East (Tunis, Tunisia, 23-27  
May 2011)  
 In particular, the Committee may wish to note the following:  
1. The Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products  finalised the Draft Standard for Fish 
Sauce, the section on smoked fish and relevant definitions, and some other sections in the Code of 
Practice for Fish and Fishery Products , the Proposed Draft Amendment to the Standard for Quick 
Frozen Fish Sticks (nitrogen factors), most sec tions in the Draft Standard for Smoked Fish, Smoke-
Flavoured Fish and Smoke-Dried Fish (except f ood additives).  It made substantial progress on the 
Proposed Draft Standard for Quick Frozen Sca llop Adductor Muscle Meat and the Proposed Draft 
Standard for Fresh/Live and Frozen Abalone of the Haliotis species, and agreed to proceed with its 
work on the Code of Practice on the Processing of Sc allop Meat, the Revision of the Procedure for the 
Inclusion of Additional Species in Standards for Fi sh and Fishery Products, and Performance Criteria 
for Reference and Confirmatory Me thods for Marine Biotoxins in the Standard for Live and Raw 
Bivalve Molluscs.  
2. The Codex Committee on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables  finalised the standards for tree 
tomatoes and chilli peppers for adoption by the Commission and made substantial progress on the 
standard for avocado, which will be considered fu rther at the next session to finalise uniformity rules 
and other size-related provisions, and agreed to forward the Proposed Draft Standard for Pomegranate 
to the Commission for adoption as a Draft Standard.  G/TBT/GEN/119 
Page 2 
 
 
  3. The Codex Committee on Food Labelling  finalised the Compilation of Codex Texts 
Relevant to Labelling of Foods De rived from Modern Biotechnology, the Proposed Draft Revision of 
the Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling concerning the list of nutrients that are always declared on a 
voluntary or mandatory basis and considered other issues on nutrition labelling and claims related to 
the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health .  It proceeded with the development 
of a section on organic aquaculture  and other amendments to the Guidelines for the Production, 
Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods .  
4. The FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for the Near East  finalised the Draft Regional 
Code of Practice for Street Vended Foods and the Proposed Draft Regional Standards for harissa and 
for halwa tehenia.  The Committee considered Codex ma tters of interest to the region, food legislation 
and food control issues.  It di scussed some questions forwarded by the Commission, especially as 
regards the mid-term review of the Trust Fund, the Strategic Plan, and the use of private standards.  
II. FORTHCOMING CODEX MEETINGS 
(i) 65th Session of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission (Geneva, Switzerland, 28 June – 1 July 2011) 
(ii) 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Geneva, Switzerland, 
4-9 July 2011) 
(iii) Codex Committee on Food Import and E xport Inspection and Certification 
Systems (Cairns, Australia, 17-21 October 2011) 
In particular, the TBT Committee may wish to note the following:  
5. The 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission will consider several draft and 
proposed draft standards and related texts for adop tion proposed by its subsidiary bodies, such as 
those indicated above.  The Commission will also di scuss financial and budget ary matters;  strategic 
planning; relations betwee n Codex and other international orga nizations such as OIE and ISO; the 
annual report of the FAO/WHO Project and Trust Fund for Enhanced Participation in Codex; and the 
FAO/WHO management response to the Codex Trust Fund Mid-Term Review.  
6. The document on capacity building activities of FAO and WHO is available at the following 
address:  ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/CAC/CAC34/cac34_15_Add1e.pdf  
7. The documents on the Codex Trust Fund are available at the following addresses: 
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/ CAC/CAC34/cac34_14e.pdf 
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/CAC/ CAC34/cac34_14_Add1e.pdf 
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/CAC/ CAC34/cac34_14_Add2e.pdf 
8. The Codex Committee on Food Import and Expo rt Inspection and Certification Systems  
will proceed with its work on the development of Proposed Draft Principles and Guidelines for 
National Food Control Systems and will consider a discussion paper on further guidance regarding 
attestation in Generic Model Official Certificates. 
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