Food Safety and Inspection Service March 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is affirming, without change, its interim final rule requiring a country of origin statement on the label of any meat or poultry product that is a covered commodity, as defined by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and that is to be sold by a retailer, also as defined by AMS, in accordance with the regulations set out in AMS' final rule, ``Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling of Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Goat Meat, Perishable Agricultural Commodities, Peanuts, Pecans, Ginseng, and Macadamia Nuts.'' FSIS is also affirming, without change, the provisions of the interim final rule that amended its regulations to provide that it will consider the addition of compliant country of origin statements to the labels of covered meat or poultry products to be generically approved. FSIS is thus conforming its regulations to the AMS final rule. FSIS is not amending its regulations or labeling policies for meat or poultry products that are non-covered commodities.

The Office of the Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are sponsoring a public meeting on April 7, 2009. 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 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which will be held in Calgary, Canada, on May 4 to May 8, 2009. In addition, a Working Group on the Implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health will meet on May 2, 2009. The Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety and FDA recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 37th Session of the CCFL and to address items on the agenda.