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FSIS Review of Approach to
"Other Consumer Protection"
National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection
October 31-November 1, 2000, Public Meeting
Briefing Paper on Current Thinking
Purpose
This briefing is to update the Committee on the status of the
Agency’s review of its approach to consumer protection activities in
processing environments other than those focused directly on food safety
and public health. Under provisions of the Federal Meat and
Poultry Products Inspection Acts, FSIS bears the responsibility of
ensuring that regulated products are safe. However, under those laws
FSIS also is responsible for ensuring that products are wholesome; are
properly marked, labeled, and packaged; and are not economically
adulterated or contain components that while not actually unsafe are
undesirable. FSIS has designated its assurances against these non-safety
related concerns as "other consumer protections" (OCP).
Discussion:
1. Why the revision of Other
Consumer Protections is a priority for FSIS
Although the Pathogen Reduction/HACCP final rule provided the basis
for a long-term agenda with respect to the Agency’s mission of reducing
foodborne illnesses, it provided only limited attention to non-food
safety issues.
- FSIS recognizes that a new approach for assuring these protections,
which do not necessarily, or primarily, involve food safety, needs to
be consistent with the applicable HACCP principles encompassing:
- a farm-to-table strategy;
- a preventive approach; and
- a consistency with the Agency’s program of regulatory reform.
- FSIS also recognizes that a new integrated approach is
needed that will:
- advance a consistent application of the prevention concept;
- provide a consistent philosophy of the appropriate assignment of
responsibilities between industry and the Agency; and
- facilitate a coordinated and efficacious approach to verification
and enforcement.
2. Other Consumer Protections
ANPR
- On March 17, 2000, FSIS published in the Federal Register an
advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to request public comment
on the need for and desirability of revising its approach to OCP
verification activities. The Agency also released a technical paper on
other consumer protections. The ANPR is the vehicle for public
consideration of a revised approach to OCP assurances. (See Attachment
1.)
The Agency’s objectives in proposing a change in FSIS’ current
approach are:
- to clarify the respective roles and responsibilities of FSIS and
the industry;
-
to use Agency resources allocated to OCP
activities more efficiently; and
-
to be more accountable to the public on
how FSIS allocates its OCP resources and about the results that are
being achieved.
-
Areas that will likely require changes in
order to implement a revised Agency approach to OCP activities are:
- FSIS regulations and guidance;
- Industry assumption of its responsibility for producing products
that comply with all OCP regulatory requirements;
- Agency verification activities; and
- the Agency’s enforcement approach.
(For more detail, see heading 4 below.)
The comment period for the ANPR on Other Consumer Protections closed
on Aug. 29, 2000. The comments are being tabulated and reviewed. A
summary of those comments is not currently available, but it should be
noted that a very large proportion of the comments reviewed thus far
apply to other consumer protections in slaughter environments and
therefore will be addressed within the public dialogue on the Agency’s
HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project.
3. Ancillary Work Relative to
OCP
In planning revisions to OCP regulations, verification, and
enforcement activities, the Agency needs to consider the relationship of
other Agency issues and initiatives that will likely bear on such
revisions. These include:
- Consolidating the meat and poultry regulations, wherever possible;
- Expressing regulatory requirements in plain language; and
- Replacing prescriptive command-and-control requirements with
performance standards that clearly define requirements, act as
catalysts for innovation, and provide for a measure of accountability
for achieving other consumer protections.
Two specific regulatory reform initiatives that may be affected by a
revised approach to OCP are:
-
Changes to Labeling Approval System .
In the 1995 Prior Labeling Approval System, Final Rule, FSIS expanded
the types of labeling that could be approved generically and announced
its intentions to make further changes after completing a reassessment
of the prior approval system.
-
Review of Food Standards. FSIS and FDA
are now preparing a joint proposal to modify their approach to
standards of identity and composition regulations.
- Performance Based Inspection System Revision.
- to eliminate any inspection activities in processing environments
that were not required by regulations; and
- to more appropriately classify inspection activities.
- New Inspection/Regulation Models.
As part of its overall
strategy to reconsider how its human resources are deployed nationwide
(the Workforce of the Future initiative), FSIS is conducting "model"
projects. For example, FSIS has initiated a small in-distribution pilot
test project that will, among other thing, explore the feasibility of
conducting some OCP verification activities outside the plant.
4. Issues
under Consideration in the Agency
Initial review and removal of redundant, overly prescriptive or
outdated OCP requirements. Revisions for assuring compliance with
OCP requirements in processing environments will probably need to occur
in phases to address the following:
- the identification of conditions, product characteristics, or
defects that are OCP concerns as opposed to food safety concerns;
- the development of performance standards for OCP concerns (food
safety concerns are addressed in HACCP plans); and
- the development of procedures to verify that inspected
establishments are meeting the OCP standards.
Before initiating these phases, the Agency would conduct a review of
the current OCP regulations with the intention of removing any
redundant, overly prescriptive, command and control, or outdated
regulations.
- Order of Revisions
. Following the establishment of an
integrated overall conceptual framework for the Agency’s OCP
activities, the order of proceeding with revisions to particular OCP
activities will need to be determined and several factors will have to
be considered. These factors include:
- limited Agency resources and the high resource demands for food
safety issues;
- consumer expectations;
- industry capabilities; and
- the relationships among current and imminent Agency issues and
initiatives.
Contact Person
Lynn Dickey, Chief, Verification Branch
Labeling, Product and Technology Division
(202) 205-0675; fax (202) 720-0582
Attachments
Advanced Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking
Technical Paper
(PDF)
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