Food Safety and Inspection Service September 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responding to public comments on a petition submitted by the National Chicken Council (NCC) on September 1, 2017, and is also providing information on the criteria applicable to line speed waivers for young chicken establishments. The NCC submitted a petition to FSIS requesting that the Agency establish a waiver program to permit young chicken slaughter establishments to operate without line speed limits if they participate in the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) and the FSIS Salmonella Initiative Program (SIP) and develop a system for monitoring and responding to loss of process control. FSIS issued a response denying the petition on January 29, 2018. The response explained that instead of establishing a separate line speed waiver program under the conditions requested in the petition, FSIS would make available criteria that it will use under its existing waiver procedures to consider individual waiver requests from young chicken establishments to operate at line speeds of up to 175 bpm. FSIS published these criteria in the February 23, 2018, Constituent Update. This notice provides additional information on the criteria that FSIS will use to evaluate new line speed waiver request submissions. Additionally, FSIS is announcing that the 20 young chicken establishments already operating under line speed waivers must meet the new criteria to remain eligible for the waiver. FSIS will issue these establishments new waiver letters that reflect the eligibility criteria described in this document. Failure by establishments already operating under line speed waivers to meet the new criteria within 120 days of receipt of these letters may result in the revocation of the waivers.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend the Siluriformes fish inspection regulations to list the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a country eligible to export Siluriformes fish and fish products to the United States. FSIS is proposing this action because the Agency has reviewed the PRC's laws, regulations, and inspection system as implemented and has determined that the PRC's Siluriformes fish inspection system is equivalent to the system that the United States has established under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and its implementing regulations. Under this proposal, only raw Siluriformes fish and fish products produced in certified PRC establishments would be eligible for export to the United States. All such products would continue to be subject to re-inspection at United States points-of-entry by FSIS inspectors.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are hosting a joint public meeting to discuss the potential hazards, oversight considerations, and labeling of cell cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry tissue. FSIS and FDA officials will make presentations on their roles and responsibilities relative to the production and labeling of safe and wholesome food and their respective regulatory frameworks, including their inspection systems, as a basis for discussing what oversight framework might be most appropriate for cell cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry. Representatives of industry, interested individuals, and other stakeholders are invited to participate in the meeting.