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

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responding to comments on an August 28, 2013, Federal Register document, ``Changes to Salmonella Verification Sampling Program: Analysis of Raw Beef for Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella'' and announcing its plans to begin analyzing for Salmonella all beef product it analyzes for Shiga toxin- producing Escherichia coli (STEC). After reviewing the comments received on the August 2013 document, FSIS is affirming the plans for addressing Salmonella in raw beef products that it announced in that document and will proceed with implementing those plans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is soliciting nominations for membership on the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI). The full Committee consists of not more than 20 members, and each person selected is expected to serve a 2-year term.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to amend its regulations to change the fees it charges for the accreditation and the maintenance of accreditation of non-Federal laboratories for the FSIS Accredited Lab Program (ALP). Currently, the Agency charges a flat annual fee of $5,000 for each accreditation or maintenance of accreditation. Laboratories that participate in FSIS' ALP can receive accreditation in one to six analyte classes. FSIS is proposing to charge laboratories $5,000 per year for the first analyte class accreditation or maintenance (as it currently does), but to reduce the charges to $2,900 per year for the second, and $2,100 per year for each additional analyte class accreditation or maintenance of accreditation.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of guidance on allergens and other ingredients of public health concern that provides recommendations for identifying hazards when conducting a hazard analysis and to prevent and control hazards through hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) plans or Sanitation standard operating procedures (SOPs) or other prerequisite programs with respect to these substances. The emphasis of the guidelines is on meat and poultry products. The guidelines represent the best practice recommendations of FSIS, based on scientific and practical considerations. By following these guidelines, establishments are likely to ensure that product labels declare all ingredients, as required in the regulations, and that the product does not contain undeclared allergens or other undeclared ingredients.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responding to comments on a Federal Register notice, ``HACCP Plan Reassessment for Not-Ready-to-Eat (NRTE) Comminuted Poultry Products and Related Agency Verification Procedures,'' that it published on December 6, 2012. The notice provided updated information on the Agency's sampling and testing of these products, and on how it is verifying that establishments are effectively addressing the possible presence of Salmonella and Campylobacter in them.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are sponsoring a public meeting to take place on April 10, 2014. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that will be discussed at the 46th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which will take place in China from May 5-10, 2014. The Under Secretary for Food Safety and the EPA recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 46th session of CCPR and to address items on the agenda.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is discontinuing the use of its 30-mL qualitative analysis for Campylobacter for young chickens. The Agency suspended this analysis on June 3, 2013. FSIS evaluated the available Campylobacter data, and its analysis suggested that the performance standard based on an analysis of the 1-mL sample volume is sufficiently sensitive to identify establishments whose process control is substandard. This is the only change that FSIS has made to its Campylobacter sampling program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request an extension of an approved information collection regarding nutrition labeling of the major cuts of single-ingredient raw meat or poultry products and ground or chopped meat and poultry products because the OMB approval will expire on April 30, 2014.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request an extension of an approved information collection regarding the regulatory requirements associated with the production of meat from Advanced Meat Recovery systems because the OMB approval will expire on March 31, 2014.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), are sponsoring a public meeting to take place on January 30, 2014. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that will be discussed at the 18th Session of the Codex Committee on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (CCFFV) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 24-28, 2014. The Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety and AMS recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 18th Session of CCFFV and to address items on the agenda.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is sponsoring a public meeting that will take place on January 23, 2014. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that will be discussed at the first session of the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), taking place in Kochi (Cochin), India, February 11-14, 2014. The Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety recognizes the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 1st Session of CCSCH and to address items on the agenda.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the 2014 rates it will charge meat and poultry establishments, egg products plants, and importers and exporters for providing voluntary, overtime, and holiday inspection and identification, certification, and laboratory services. The 2014 basetime, overtime, holiday, and laboratory services rates will be applied on the first FSIS pay period approximately 30 days after the publication of this notice, which begins on February 9, 2014.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing a meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI). The Committee is being convened to review two topics for FSIS. The first topic will address safe handling instructions included on food labels. FSIS is seeking input from the committee to fully explore enhancing the safe food handling label on meat and poultry packages. With this input, the Agency will consider whether or not the current safe handling instructions should be changed to meet the needs of the consuming public; FSIS is also seeking feedback from NACMPI on FSIS's Establishment-Specific Data Release Strategic Plan. The plan was developed from recommendations by the NACMPI committee in 2010. FSIS would like the committee to review the strategic plan and provide further suggestions.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, this notice announces the Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) intention to request a revision of a currently approved information collection regarding the procedures for notifying the Agency about new technology because the OMB approval will expire on January 31, 2014, and because FSIS has revised its total annual burden estimate in light of the latest available data.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is amending the meat and poultry products inspection regulations to expand the circumstances in which FSIS will generically approve the labels of meat and poultry products. The Agency also is consolidating the regulations that provide for the approval of labels for meat products and poultry products into a new Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part.

The Accredited Laboratory Program is the FSIS program in which non-Federal laboratories are accredited as eligible to perform analyses on official regulatory samples of raw or processed meat and poultry products, and through which a check sample program for quality assurance is conducted. The program is funded by user fees. The current fee regulation is due to expire at the end of the present fiscal year. In order to provide time to develop a proposed rule that will establish a formula for determining the fee, FSIS is extending the current laboratory accreditation fee.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request an extension of a previously approved information collection concerning industry responses to noncompliance records. There are no changes to the existing information collection.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing changes to its procedures for Salmonella verification sampling program of raw beef products. On the date that FSIS will announce in the Federal Register document that responds to any comments on this document, FSIS will discontinue Salmonella sampling set procedures (``HC01'') in ground beef products, except in establishments with results that exceeded the standard for Salmonella in that establishment's most recently completed sample set (i.e., in those establishments in Category 3). At the same time, FSIS will begin analyzing for Salmonella all raw beef samples that it collects for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) analysis. Therefore, FSIS will begin analyzing for Salmonella all samples of raw ground beef, beef manufacturing trimmings, bench trim, and other raw ground beef components that it collects for STEC testing. To be consistent with the Agency's STEC analytic sample portions, FSIS laboratories will increase the raw ground beef analytic sample portion for Salmonella analysis from 25 grams to 325 grams. This notice describes how FSIS intends to use the results from its verification sampling program to develop new Salmonella performance standards for ground beef product and to estimate Salmonella prevalence in raw ground beef and beef manufacturing trimmings products. Finally, this document discusses changes that the Agency is considering related to FSIS Salmonella sampling and testing of other products.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request revision of an information collection for the voluntary cooperative interstate shipment program because the Agency has more recent data concerning the program, and the information collection approval is scheduled to expire on August 31, 2013. FSIS is estimating fewer burden hours for this information collection than are currently approved because fewer States and State establishments are participating in the cooperative interstate shipment program than the Agency had originally estimated three years ago.

This notice informs the public of the sanitary and phytosanitary standard-setting activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), in accordance with section 491 of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as amended, and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, Public Law 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809. This notice also provides a list of other standard-setting activities of Codex, including commodity standards, guidelines, codes of practice, and revised texts. This notice, which covers the time periods from June 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013, and June 1, 2013, to May 31, 2014, seeks comments on standards under consideration and recommendations for new standards.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing to require the use of the descriptive designation ``mechanically tenderized'' on the labels of raw or partially cooked needle- or blade- tenderized beef products, including beef products injected with marinade or solution, unless such products are destined to be fully cooked at an official establishment. Beef products that have been needle- or- blade-tenderized are referred to as ``mechanically tenderized'' products. FSIS is proposing that the product name for such beef products include the descriptive designation ``mechanically tenderized'' and an accurate description of the beef component. By including this descriptive designation consumers will be informed that this product is non-intact. Non-intact products need to be fully cooked in order to be rendered free of pathogenic bacteria because bacteria may become translocated from the surface of the meat during mechanical tenderization. FSIS is also proposing that the print for all words in the descriptive designation as the product name appear in the same style, color, and size and on a single-color contrasting background. In addition, FSIS is proposing to require that labels of raw and partially cooked needle- or blade-tenderized beef products destined for household consumers, hotels, restaurants, or similar institutions include validated cooking instructions that inform consumers that these products need to be cooked to a specified minimum internal temperature, and whether they need to be held at that minimum temperature for a specified time before consumption, i.e., dwell time or rest time, to ensure that they are fully cooked. Based on the scientific evidence that indicates that mechanically tenderized beef products need to be cooked more thoroughly than intact beef products, FSIS is proposing these amendments to the regulations. FSIS is also announcing that it has posted on its Web site guidance for developing validated cooking instructions for mechanically tenderized product. The recommendations in the guidance document are based on the results from published research designed to identify minimum internal temperature and time combinations sufficient to render a product and studies designed to validate cooking instructions.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing the availability of the final revision of the compliance guide for the prevention of violative residues in livestock slaughter establishments. In addition, this notice summarizes and responds to comments received on the guide and residue testing issues that FSIS raised previously in the Federal Register.

This notice is announcing that the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) will hold public meetings of the full Committee and subcommittees on June 4-6, 2013. The Committee will discuss: (1) Control strategies for reducing foodborne Norovirus infections, (2) Study of microbiological criteria as indicators of process control or insanitary conditions, and (3) Application of NACMCF recommendations to the Agricultural Marketing Service, Federal Ground Beef Purchase Program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing its intention to request a new information collection regarding the compilation of updated contact information for Accredited Laboratories.

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is sponsoring a public meeting on June 18, 2013. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions that will be discussed at the Thirty-Sixth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), which will take place July 1-5, 2013 in Rome, Italy. The Under Secretary for Food Safety recognizes the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the session and to address items on the agenda.