The 15th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (CCCF15), which was held in May 2022, agreed to re-establish the electronic working group (EWG) chaired by India and co-chaired by Senegal, to prepare a new proposal for a maximum level (ML) for total aflatoxins (AFT) in ready-to-eat (RTE) peanuts and an associated sampling plan for consideration at the CCCF16 in April 2023.
In view of the data provided to date and the time frame, the EWG recommends the following:
i. Member countries to submit RTE Peanut AFT occurrence data to GEMS/Food after implementation of the Code of practice for the prevention and reduction of aflatoxin contamination in peanuts (CXC 55-2004) for the years 2019 onwards, if not yet submitted, to enable the WHO GEMS/Food Administrator to provide segregated RTE Peanut occurrence data country/geographical region wise.
ii. India to resubmit 8802 RTE Peanut AFT occurrence data to GEMS/Food in µg/kg unit instead of mg/kg.
iii. Members to relook at 102 data points related to limit of detection (LOD) below 4 µg/kg.
iv. The EWG to present a paper at the CCCF17 (2024) taking into consideration the segregated RTE Peanut AFT occurrence data country/geographical region wise provided by the WHO GEMS/Food Administrator.