Codex Committee on General Principles
(Host Government - France)
The Codex Committee on General Principles (CCGP) deals with rules, principles and procedures referred by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, particularly those which define the purpose and scope of Codex work and the nature of Codex standards. The committee also addresses economic impact statements.
Existing Codex standards
A number of standards relating to general principles* have now been endorsed and adopted into the international food code. They include standards on:
- Definition of Traceability/ Product Tracing
- Statements of Principle Relating to the Role of Food Safety Risk Assessment
- Statements of Principle Concerning the Role of Science in The Codex Decision Making Process and the extent to which other factors are taken into account
- Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Application in the Framework of the Codex Alimentarius
- Code of Ethics for International trade in food including concessional and food aid transactions.
*This is an indicative list only. For a full list of standards approved by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, please consult its Official List of Standards.
Last meeting
The Committee met for its 30th Session in Paris, France from 11-15 April 2016.
Matters for adoption by the 39th Session of the Commission:
The Committee forwarded for adoption amendments to the following sub-sections of Section II of the Procedural Manual as proposed by CCMAS:
- Section “Principles for the Establishment of Codex Methods of Analysis”, sub-section “Working Instructions for the Implementation of the Criteria Approach in Codex” (para 7); and
- Section “Format for Codex Commodity Standards”, sub-section “Methods of Analysis and Sampling” (para 7).
Matters of interest to the Commission and Executive Committee
The Committee:
- Forwarded the revised Terms of Reference of the Secretariat-led Internal review of Codex work management to CCEXEC71 and CAC39 (para. 39 and Appendix II);
- Recommended to the Commission that with regard to the Consistency of the Risk Analysis Texts across the Relevant Committees:
- CCNFSDU should revise the text on nutritional risk analysis and consider how to include JEMNU as a primary source of scientific advice (para. 55); and
- The Secretariat should address minor numbering issues in the texts for CCCF, CCRVDF and CCPR with the relevant Committees (para. 55).
Other Matters of Interest
The following issues were presented:- Discussion Paper on work carried out by Committees working by correspondence only (paras 59-60);
- Information Paper on Emerging Issues: A proposed Risk Management Approach to Address Detection in Food of Chemicals of Very Low Public Health Concern (para. 61 ); and
- Concerns on the migration of the Codex website to a new domain within the FAO domain (paras 62-67).
Next meeting
The 31st Session of the Committee on General Principles is scheduled to be held in Paris in the European Spring of 2018, depending on the decision of the Commission.