Food Safety and Inspection Service January 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), are sponsoring a public meeting on February 28, 2012. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States (U.S.) positions that will be discussed at the 33rd Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which will be held in Budapest, Hungary, March 5-9, 2012. The Under Secretary for Food Safety and FDA recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 33rd Session of the CCMAS and to address items on the agenda.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the meat and poultry inspection regulations to provide for an electronic export application and certification system. The electronic export application and certification system will be a component of the Agency's Public Health Information System (PHIS). The export component of PHIS will be available as an alternative to the paper-based application and certification process. FSIS is proposing to charge users for the use of the proposed system. FSIS is proposing to establish a formula for calculating the fee. FSIS intends to publish notice of the fee, using the formula, in the Federal Register on an annual basis. FSIS is also proposing to provide flexibility in the requirements for official export inspection marks, devices, and certificates. In addition, FSIS is proposing to amend the egg product export regulations that parallel the meat and poultry product export regulations.