Food Law News - FAO/WHO/WTO/Codex - 2005

4 - 8 April 2005

CODEX - Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (26 th Session), Budapest, Hungary

The summary and conclusions of the 26th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling are as follows:

Matters for consideration by the 28th Session of the Commission:

The Committee:

• endorsed several methods of analysis in Codex standards at different steps of the Procedure; and proposed to include a note in CODEX STAN 234-1999 concerning the use of the most updated version of methods of analysis (paras. 53-83 and 88, Appendix III);

Matters for consideration by the 29th Session of the Commission:

• agreed to propose the inclusion of new recommendations on The Use of Analytical Results: Sampling Plans, Relationship between the Analytical Results, the Measurement Uncertainty, Recovery Factors and Provisions in Codex Standards in the Procedural Manual (para. 107, Appendix II);

Other Matters of Interest to the Commission

The Committee:

• agreed to return to Step 6 the Draft Guidelines for Evaluating Acceptable Methods of Analysis (para. 20);
• agreed to return to Step 2/3 the Proposed Draft Guidelines for Settling Disputes on Analytical (Test) Results (para. 42);
• agreed to postpone consideration of the Proposed Draft Recommendations on the Fitness-for-purpose Approach (para. 26);
• agreed to proceed with the review of the current Analytical Terminology for Codex Use in the Procedural Manual (para. 50);
• agreed to consider further at its next session the conversion of methods for trace elements into criteria (para. 99); the criteria for methods of analysis for foods derived from biotechnology (para. 116); and the methods for the determination of dioxins and PCBs (para. 123);
• agreed to consider at its next session the revision of the IUPAC/ISO/AOAC Protocol for Proficiency Testing; and sampling uncertainty (paras. 141-143).