Food Safety and Inspection Service July 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document corrects the Regulation Identifier Number that appeared in a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on July 15, 2021, regarding establishing a uniform time period requirement and clarifying related procedures for the filing of appeals of agency inspection decisions or actions.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responding to two recommendations from the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding the Agency's rulemaking process for the proposed rule entitled Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection, that included the proposal to establish the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS).

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is amending its regulations to define yak and include it among ``exotic animals'' eligible for voluntary inspection under 9 CFR part 352. This change is in response to a petition for rulemaking from a yak industry association, which FSIS granted in 2015. Additionally, FSIS is revising the definitions of antelope, bison, buffalo, catalo, deer, elk, reindeer, and water buffalo to make them more scientifically accurate. Moreover, FSIS is responding to comments on whether all farmed-raised species in the biological families Bovidae, Cervidae, and Camelidae, if not already subject to mandatory inspection, should be eligible for voluntary inspection, and whether any species in these families should be added to the list of amenable species requiring mandatory inspection.

In the American Rescue Plan Act, enacted on March 11, 2021, Congress provided the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) with $100 million in budget authority to reduce the costs of overtime inspection for small and very small official meat and poultry establishments and egg products plants. FSIS will implement this provision by reducing overtime and holiday inspection fees for small establishments by 30 percent and very small establishments by 75 percent. FSIS has developed an Overtime/Holiday Rate Reduction form that official establishments will need to submit to request an overtime or holiday inspection fee reduction. FSIS will review the form to determine whether an establishment qualifies for the fee reduction. This notice contains information on how to complete and submit the form to FSIS and describes the procedures FSIS will follow to implement the American Rescue Plan Act's overtime and holiday inspection fee reduction provisions.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of revised guidelines to assist poultry establishments in controlling Salmonella and Campylobacter in raw poultry. The Agency has revised the content of the guidelines in light of new scientific and technical information, public comments received on the 2015 guideline, and the Agency's decision to issue two separate guidelines one on controlling Salmonella and the other on controlling Campylobacter. The guidelines provide ``best practice'' recommendations that poultry establishments may follow to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination of raw products.