Food Safety and Inspection Service March 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the Federal meat and poultry products inspection regulations in order that they reference the revised version of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Handbook 133 that contains standards for determining the reasonable variations allowed for the declared net weight on labels of immediate containers of meat and poultry products; the procedures to be used to determine the net weight and net weight compliance of meat and poultry products; and related definitions. The Agency also is proposing to consolidate the separate net weight regulations for meat and poultry products in a new CFR part, applicable to both meat and poultry products.

This notice announces that the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) will hold public meetings of the full Committee and subcommittees on March 21-24, 2006. The Committee will discuss: (1) Determination of Cooking Parameters for Safe Seafood for Consumers, (2) Consumer Guidelines for the Safe Cooking of Poultry Products, and (3) Assessment of the Food Safety Importance and Public Health Significance of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the federal meat and poultry products inspection regulations to provide that the Agency will make available to the public lists of the retail consignees of meat and poultry products that have been voluntarily recalled by a federally inspected meat or poultry products establishment if product has been distributed to the retail level. FSIS is proposing to routinely post these retail consignee lists on its Web site as they are developed by the Agency during its recall verification activities. FSIS is proposing this action because it believes that the efficiency of recalls will be improved if there is more information available as to where products that have been recalled were sold. By providing consumers more information about the locations where recalled products have been sold, FSIS believes that consumers will be more likely to identify and return such products to those locations or to dispose of them. This action will apply only to meat and poultry products.