Food Law News - FAO/WHO/WTO/Codex - 2001

Chiba, Japan, 25-29 March 2001

Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology (2nd Session)

The Task Force:

• Agreed to advance the Proposed Draft Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology and the Proposed Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants to Step 5 of the Procedure for the consideration of the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission;
• Agreed to document the present status of validation of the methods that had been reported by the member countries and recommended that a register or depository containing relevant information on methods for the detection or identification of foods or food ingredients derived from biotechnology (as well as the availability of reference materials) be established;
• Considered a discussion paper on the concept of traceability and an informatioin paper on familiarity;
• Adopted its preliminary report for submission to the 24th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission;
• Agreed, subject to the approval by the 24th Session of the Codex Alimnetarius Commission, to initiate a new work on the elaboration of a guideline for conduct of food safety assessment of modified microorganisms in food.
• Welcomed the initiative of FAO and WHO to convene an expert consultation to support the scientific aspects of its work in the area of the safety assessment of genetically modified microorganisms in food.