The Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products met in Beijing, China, September 18-22, 2006. The U.S. Delegate, Mr. Philip Spiller, reports that the United States fully participated on all agenda items and was successful in achieving its objectives and goals during this Session. Some highlights that reflect U.S. effort and interest are included below.

Amendments to the Standard for Canned Sardines and the Procedure for the Inclusion of Additional Species in Standards

Discussion on the standing amendment proposed by Chile to include Clupea bentincki in the Standard has been ongoing for several sessions with no progress. However, at this session, an intra-session working group was established to discuss this amendment as well as a proposed Amendment to the Labeling Section of the Standard offered by Morocco and the proposed Procedure for the Inclusion of Additional Species in Standards prepared by France. The workgroup was coordinated by the Delegations of Canada and the European Community and was able to make recommendations to the Committee that allowed progress on this issue. The committee took the advice of the working group and agreed to allow the inclusion of Clupea bentincki in the Standard and revise the labeling section so that all sardines in the standard, with the exception of Sardina pilchardus, would be labeled "in accordance with the law and custom of the country in which the product is sold and in a manner not to mislead the consumer." The labeling would read "'X sardines' where 'X' is the name of the country, a geographic area, the species or the common name of the species, or any combination of these elements." The Committee advanced these amendments to Step 5 of the Accelerated Procedure for adoption by the Commission. The Delegation of the United States concurred with this amendment because it does not appear that labeling of sardines now covered by the Standard would have to change. Pre-existing labels have already established "custom" and it is difficult to imagine countries changing "law" on the basis of this Standard. Moreover, the U.S. delegate expressed the view to the committee that the United States does not regard this amendment as a precedent for labeling requirements in other standards, but regards it as a unique solution to a unique problem.

The workgroup also recommended that the proposed Discussion Paper on the Procedure for Inclusion of Additional Species be accepted as new work. The Committee concurred with this recommendation. Upon acceptance by the Commission, France will lead the development of this work with assistance from other delegations. They intend to revise the procedure for circulation and comments by the next Committee meeting.

Proposed Draft Standard for Sturgeon Caviar

The Committee had extensive discussions at the session on this Draft Standard, especially on the title and scope sections. Several delegations thought that paddlefish caviar should be included in this standard with sturgeon caviar, while other delegations believed that the scope should remain limited to sturgeon caviar and that paddlefish and other fish roe should be covered by a separate standard. These alternatives were kept in square brackets for consideration at the next session. Consideration was also given to the temperature requirements and numerical levels of salt. The Committee had discussion on the use of food additives in caviar, specifically boric acid and sodium tetraborate. There was some discussion whether additives should be allowed, but several delegations pointed out the usefulness of additives in these products. Because no risk assessment has been done on these additives, no ADI has been established and only additives with an associated ADI may be included in the Standard. Therefore, the Committee will ask JECFA to consider placing these additives on their list for evaluation. Brief discussions were also held regarding labeling and the inclusion of country of origin on the label. No consensus on this was reached however and the text will remain in square brackets for consideration at the next session. The Standard was returned to Step 6 for further comments and consideration at the next session.

Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs

Proposed Draft Standard for Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs
This Standard was redrafted by the United States prior to the session to divide the document into two sections, one for "live" products and one for "raw" products, including those that have been post harvest processed to kill vibrio bacteria, and to incorporate comments from other countries in this regard. A working group chaired by Canada also met prior to this session to prepare a discussion paper and make recommendations to the Committee on numerical limits for marine biotoxins in bivalve molluscs. The redrafted Standard as well as the recommendations from the working group were fully discussed by the Committee. The Committee agreed to revise the information on biotoxins, including numerical limits, based on the recommendations from the working group. In addition, the Committee discussed making several recommendations to WHO/FAO for risk assessment of several toxin groups, reevaluation of Azaspiracids and Brevetoxins, and development of a manual and training for biotoxin monitoring programs. A table of appropriate methods to be used for the determination of biotoxins was also incorporated into the Standard, which will be reviewed by the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling.

The Committee discussed requirements for numbers of fecal coliforms or E. coli bacteria allowed in live bivalve molluscs as well as the testing regimes to be used for determination of those numbers and decided to use a general approach that lists both the U.S. standard for fecal coliforms as well as the European standard for E. coli bacteria. The Delegation of the United States supported this general approach because attempts to get the Committee to agree to one regime or the other would have caused interminable deadlock.

Specific requirements for viruses had to be removed from the Standard because at this time there are no reliable indicator methods for viruses. However, the Committee did incorporate specifications for Vibrio parahaemolyticus at the request of the Delegation of Japan stating that live bivalve molluscs must not contain V. parahaemolyticus 100 MPN/g flesh. The Delegation of the United States did not debate inclusion of this specification during the session, but held the suggestion under advisement. Upon consideration after the session, the United States cannot support this specification and is working toward a solution that would either remove the number from the Standard or request the number be put in brackets until such time that a risk assessment is completed to support inclusion of a standard for V. parahaemolyticus.

Another change made to this Standard included revision of the labeling requirements to make them less prescriptive, but to ensure that all information necessary to trace the product would be retained. This approach was proposed by the United States in response to very detailed labeling provisions proposed by the European Commission. The United States took the view that it would be virtually impossible for the Committee to agree to a large number of details that correspond to specific European labeling requirements, but that the Committee could agree with statements expressing the key purposes for various labeling requirements, with the details to be left to individual countries. The Committee adopted this approach. Consideration of the use of food additives in raw bivalve molluscs was to be discussed further in comments and at the next session. The Standard was advanced to Step 5 for adoption by the Commission with endorsement by the relevant committees.

Proposed Draft Code of Practice for Processing of Live and Raw Bivalve Molluscs
The Committee also discussed in its entirety this section of the Draft Code of Practice. Consideration was given to the approach of splitting this document into separate sections to address "live" and "raw" bivalve molluscs, as was done for the standard, but the Committee decided to progress through the document in its present structure at the session rather than returning it for further redrafting. Consideration will need to be given to the proper structure and flow of this document for the next session. The Delegation of the United States offered recommendations to revise the current draft to clarify several processing steps, with special focus on clarifying the steps associated with post harvest processing or "processing to reduce or limit target organisms." Revisions also included clarification that the conformity of bivalves with end product specification "can be determined by direct examination of the mollusc's flesh or through adequate monitoring of the water." A new subsection was added to clarify hand shucking and mechanical shucking. Based on the recommendations of the marine biotoxin working group, revisions were made to the section on marine biotoxin control regarding monitoring, sampling, and the use of indicator species. The Committee also clarified the use of E. coli and coliforms as indicators, stating that because they "do not correlate well with the presence of viruses, other controls such as shoreline surveys should always be employed." The Committee also agreed to adopt a statement indicating that "bacteriophage and viral detection could also be used as indicators when validated analytical methods become available in the future." The Delegation of the United States concurred with the changes adopted by the Committee and this section of the Proposed Draft Code of Practice was advanced to Step 5.

Smoked Fish

Proposed Draft Standard for Smoked Fish
The Committee had extensive discussion on the scope of this document. Consensus could not be reached on whether to include in the scope products that have only been treated with "liquid smoke" so that they are smoke-flavored but have not actually been subjected to smoke, or products that are smoked but not ready-to-eat. Discussion on this standard did not continue beyond the scope. Due to the lack of consensus, it was agreed that an electronic working group, led by the Delegation of the Netherlands, would be established to revise the current Standard based on the comments already submitted. In addition, the working group will collect and consider data in order to make a recommendation on whether other products should be included in this Standard.

Proposed Draft Code of Practice for Processing of Smoked Fish
The Committee did not have time to discuss this document. It was returned to Step 3 for discussion at the next session.

Scallops

Proposed Draft Standard for Quick Frozen Scallop Adductor Muscle Meat;
Proposed Draft Code of Practice for the Processing of Scallop Meat
The Committee did not have time to discuss the Proposed Standard nor the Proposed Code of Practice for Scallop Meat. Consideration of these items was deferred until the Committee's next session. Therefore, the Delegation of the United States will resubmit their comments for consideration at the 29th Session and they will continue to advocate for provisions in these documents to allow for the addition of phosphates as food additives in scallop meat products.

Other Codes of Practice

Amendment to Quick Frozen Coated Products
This amendment was proposed at the 27th Session by the U.S. and Germany to incorporate subsections on Shrimp and Prawns and Molluscan Shellfish. It was discussed during this session with minor modifications that were supported by the U.S. The modifications primarily clarified the processing operations for coated shrimp, including identification of hazards and defects. The Delegation of the United States concurred with these changes and the Committee agreed to advance the amendment to Step 5 with the recommendation that the Commission omit Steps 6 and 7 and adopt it at Step 8.

Processing of Salted Fish
The Committee discussed this draft section of the Code of Practice in its entirety. Only minor modifications were made to the draft primarily to clarify requirements at processing steps. Some of the provisions that were clarified included deletion of overly prescriptive salt requirements and deletion of specific temperatures at the dry-salting and drying steps. The Delegation of the United States concurred with these changes and the Committee agreed to advance this section of the Proposed Draft to Step 5 with the recommendation that the Commission omit Steps 6 and 7 and adopt at Step 8.

Processing of Lobsters and Crabs
The Committee accepted the proposal submitted by the Delegation of the United States to separate the information on lobsters and the information on crabs into two separate sections of the draft Code of Practice. As a combined document, the information was too cumbersome. The new drafts included extensive comments in order to provide more technical guidance at several processing steps. There was some disagreement over the allowance of the use of chlorinated water and it was agreed that the issue could be discussed further during the next session. Otherwise, the separated drafts were well-received and the Committee agreed to advance both sections to Step 5 with the opportunity to provide detailed comments at Step 6.

Overall, the U.S. delegation was pleased with the outcome of this committee session.