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Upcoming Committee Meetings

The 33rd Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) will meet in Bad Soden am Taunus, Germany, Nov. 14 -18. The main agenda items are:

• Selecting criteria and identifying authoritative independent scientific bodies for establishing nutrient reference values (NRV) consistent with the &quotGeneral Principles for Establishing NRVs of Vitamins and Minerals&quot adopted by the Commission in July as an annex to the Guidelines on Nutrition Labeling.
• Revising the proposed draft NRVs for Nutrients Associated with the Risk of Diet-Related Non-Communicable Diseases for the General Population (NRV-NCDs), and proposals for setting NRVs for saturated fatty acids and sodium as well prospects for integrating the NRVs-NDC principles with the recently adopted NRV principles annexed to the Guidelines on Nutrition Labeling.
• Revising the General Principles for the Addition of Essential Nutrients to Foods.
• Revising the Guidelines on Formulated Supplementary Foods for Older Infants and Young Children.
• Amending of the Standard for Processed Cereal-based Foods for Infants and Young Children by including a new part concerning underweight children.
• Considering new work to revise the Codex Standard for Follow-up Formula.

New Electronic Working Groups (eWG)

Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products: Canada will chair a new eWG (working in English) with the mandate of proposing criteria/parameters on Screening Methods for Biotoxins in the Standard for Live and Raw Bivalve Mollusks. Individuals in the United States interested in contributing to the eWG should send their name, official title, and email address to the U.S. Codex Office (USCodex@fsis.usda.gov). Codex Members and Observers interested in participating in the eWG should provide the names, official positions, institutions and email addresses of their representatives to: Rod Penney (Rod.Penney@inspection.gc.ca) and Codex Canada (codex_canada@hc-sc.gc.ca) by Nov. 16.

EXPERT REPORT

The Joint FAO/WHO JMPR Secretariats have posted the links below to the summary report of the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues held in September 2011. For additional information please refer to the Joint FAO/WHO JMPR Secretariats: Mrs Yong Zhen Yang (YongZhen.Yang@fao.org) and Dr Philippe Verger (vergerp@who.int).

FAO: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/documents/Pests_Pesticides/JMPR/2011_JMPR_Sum_Rep.pdf
WHO: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/jmpr/summary_2011.pdf

CALL FOR DATA

The Joint FAO/WHO JMPR Secretariat has issued a call for data for toxicological and residue evaluations of the list of substances scheduled for evaluation or re-evaluation at the September 2012 meeting. For additional information please refer to the FAO/WHO JMPR Secretariats: Mrs Yong Zhen Yang (YongZhen.Yang@fao.org) and Dr Philippe Verger (vergerp@who.int). The deadline for submission of data and information is December 1. The call for data is available at the FAO and WHO websites at:

FAO: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/documents/Pests_Pesticides/JMPR/Call_data_2012.pdf 
WHO: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/chem/jmpr/JMPR_2012_call_final.pdf