2010, Volume XIII, Issue 1REGULATORY NEWSAt the Third Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (“the Committee”) in April 2009, the Brazilian delegation presented its recommendations concerning revised aflatoxin regulations for Brazil nuts, ochratoxin A (OTA) reduction in coffee, and fumonisin limits in corn (maize). Noting the difficulty of controlling aflatoxin contamination in a crop collected in the wild, the Brazilian delegation recommended separate maximum levels for shelled and unshelled Brazil nuts for consumption or further processing. In response to persistent objections to this proposal and the Committee’s lack of consensus on the issue, the Brazilian delegation agreed to redraft their current report before resubmitting it for further discussion. After reviewing the other two discussion papers, the Committee voted to forward the delegation’s recommendations for OTA reduction in coffee to Codex Commission and agreed that an updated risk assessment from the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) should be added to the Brazilian report on fumonisins in corn. Codex granted the Committee’s request to begin work on the three proposed codes at its Thirty-Second Session in Rome, Italy. June 29–July 4, 2009. The program of both meetings can be downloaded from the CODEX
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