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Amanda Eamich

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2005– The Office of the Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today announced a public meeting to provide information and receive comments on agenda items that will be discussed at the 26th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling in Budapest, Hungary, April 4 - 8, 2005.

The public meeting will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Tuesday, March 15, Conference Room 1A002 of the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD. Agenda items for the meeting can be found at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/current.asp.

The Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) specifies reference methods of analysis and sampling and considers specific sampling and analysis problems.

Codex was created in 1963 by two United Nations organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Codex develops food standards, guidelines and codes of practice in order to protect the health of consumers, ensure fair trade practices in the food trade and promote coordination of food standards undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

For information concerning the public meeting or for a sign language interpreter, contact Dr. Gregory Diachenko, Director, Division of Chemistry Research and Environmental Review, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FDA, Harvey Wiley Federal Building, 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, MD, 20740, at (301) 436-1898 or by fax at (301) 436-2634.