[Federal Register: April 20, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 76)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 21047-21049]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20ap04-5]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food Safety and Inspection Service
9 CFR Part 320 and 381
[Docket No. 01-034E]
Need To Complete New Registration Form
AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Extension of date by which businesses required to register with
FSIS must do so.
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SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing
that all parties required to register with the Agency, including those
that are currently registered, have until May 24, 2004, to file the new
registration form that the Agency has developed. On June 25, 2003, FSIS
announced that it had developed the new registration form, and that all
businesses required to register with FSIS were to submit the form by
March 22, 2004. FSIS is extending the deadline for submitting the new
registration form because it was not available at the time FSIS
projected that it would be available. This document addresses issues
that have arisen concerning the registration requirement.
DATES: All parties required to register with FSIS, including those
currently registered, must complete the new registration form and
submit it to FSIS by May 24, 2004.
ADDRESSES: The new registration form (FSIS Form 5020-1) is available
over the Internet at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fsisforms. To obtain a
copy of the registration form, parties may also write to USDA, FSIS,
Program Evaluation, Enforcement and Review (PEER), Evaluation and
Enforcement Division (EED), 300 West End Court Building, 1255 22nd
Street, NW., Room 300, Washington, DC 20250-3700.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Arshad Hussain, Division Director,
Data Analysis and Statistical Support Staff, Food Safety and Inspection
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (202) 720-3219.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 25, 2003, FSIS published a document
that announced the need for certain businesses to complete a new
registration form that the Agency had developed, and that explained the
importance of compliance with recordkeeping and registration
requirements in the Federal meat and poultry products inspection
regulations (68 FR 37730).
As explained in that document, the Federal Meat Inspection Act
(FMIA) and Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) prohibit any person,
firm, or corporation from engaging in commerce as a meat or poultry
products broker, renderer, animal food manufacturer, wholesaler of any
carcasses, or parts or products of the carcasses of livestock (that is,
cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equines) or
poultry, or public warehouseman storing any such articles in or for
commerce, or from buying, selling, or transporting, or importing any
dead, dying, disabled or diseased livestock or poultry or parts of the
carcasses of livestock or poultry that died otherwise than by
slaughter, unless they have registered their business as required by
the regulations, 9 CFR 320.5 and 381.179 (see section 203 of the FMIA
(21 U.S.C. 643) and section 11(c) of the PPIA (21 U.S.C. 460(c)).
Sections 320.5(c) and 381.179(c) of 9 CFR provide that the registration
requirements do not apply to persons that conduct any of the businesses
listed above only at an official establishment. Therefore, official
establishments are not required to register with FSIS.
Following publication of the June 25, 2003, document, a retail
association contacted FSIS and asked whether retailers are required to
register with FSIS, and whether warehouses and distribution centers
owned by retail stores are required to register with FSIS. The Agency
advises that retail stores that sell meat or poultry products to
household consumers only are not required to register with FSIS.
However, if they sell meat or poultry products to hotels, restaurants,
institutions, or other retailers, they are wholesalers of such products
and thus are subject to the registration requirement.
With regard to warehouses and to distribution centers that store
product and thus function as warehouses, the statutes and regulations
require that public warehouses register with FSIS but do not require
that private warehouses register. Whether a warehouse is considered
public or private turns on several factors. If a warehouse is owned by
a retail store and stores only meat and poultry products that are the
property of that retail store, the warehouse is a private warehouse and
is not required to register with FSIS. However, if the warehouse stores
any meat or poultry products that are not owned by the retail store
that owns the warehouse, that warehouse would be considered a public
warehouse and would be required to register with FSIS. For example, if
a retail store has consigned meat or poultry products to a hotel,
restaurant, institution, or other retailer, and the product is stored
in the warehouse owned by the retail store, the warehouse is
functioning as a public warehouse, because the retail store no longer
owns the products, and would be required to register.
As explained in the June 25, 2003, document, registration
information, along with business records, is critical in any FSIS
investigation related to public health, food safety, or misbranding of
meat or poultry products (68 FR 37730). Registration information and
business records are crucial in tracing sources of foodborne disease
associated with consumption of meat or poultry products and in tracing
the sources of contamination of meat or poultry products. Registration
information and business records are also crucial in preventing the
spread of disease associated with the consumption of meat or poultry
products.
According to Sec. Sec. 320.5(a) and 381.179(a) of the regulations,
parties required to register with FSIS must do so by filing a form with
the Agency. These regulations require parties to register within 90
days after they begin to engage in any of the businesses that require
them to register. Sections 320.5(b) and 381.179(b) of the regulations
require that, whenever any change is made in the registrant's name,
business address, or any trade or business name under which it conducts
its business, the registrant must report such change in writing to the
Administrator within 15 days after making the change.
As explained in the June 25, 2003, document, FSIS has developed a
new registration form. Because the form asks for certain information
that was not included on the previous form, including an e-mail
address, phone number, and subsidiaries' hours of operation, all
parties required to register, including those that are currently
registered, need to complete the new form and submit it to FSIS.
Parties must submit the form to FSIS by May 24, 2004.
FSIS previously announced that parties were required to submit the
form by March 22, 2004. FSIS is extending
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the deadline for submitting the new registration form to FSIS because
the form did not become available when FSIS projected it would. The
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewed information collection
associated with the registration form in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act. On February 20, 2004, the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) approved information collection associated with the new
registration form (OMB control No. 0583-0218).
The registration form (FSIS Form 5020-1) can be obtained over the
Internet at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fsisforms.
To obtain the form, parties can also write to USDA, FSIS, Program
Evaluation, Enforcement and Review (PEER), Evaluation and Enforcement
Division (EED), 300 West End Court Building, 1255 22nd Street, NW.,
Room 300, Washington, DC 20250-3700. The form will also be available
from FSIS personnel that visit businesses required to register. Once
parties complete the form, they should mail it to USDA, FSIS, Program
Evaluation, Enforcement and Review (PEER), Evaluation and Enforcement
Division (EED), 300 West End Court Building, 1255 22nd Street, NW.,
Room 300, Washington, DC 20250-3700 (the same address as for obtaining
forms) or fax it to Director, Evaluation and Enforcement Division (EED)
at (202) 418-8941.
FSIS intends to issue instructions to FSIS personnel concerning the
registration requirement.
Comments
FSIS received two comments in response to the June 25, 2003,
document on recordkeeping and registration, one from a consumer
organization and one from the government of a foreign country that is
eligible to export to the United States (U.S.) product from livestock
covered by the FMIA.
The consumer group stated that FSIS should require additional
registration information, such as the specific types of animals
slaughtered and animal products processed, transported, or handled;
whether the registrant operates on a seasonal basis, and if so, the
hours of operation; whether the types of animals slaughtered, processed
or transported change depending on the season; and the name and
telephone number of a contact person in the event of an emergency,
particularly during non-working hours. This commenter also recommended
that FSIS re-examine the existing regulatory recordkeeping requirements
to assure that the type and form of the records required to be kept
would be sufficient for FSIS to conduct both a trace back and a trace
forward in the event of a food emergency. Finally, the commenter
recommended that FSIS work with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) to assure that the strongest possible cattle
identification system is in place so that animals can be traced back to
their source as quickly as possible.
FSIS believes that existing registration and recordkeeping
requirements are adequate to conduct both a trace back and a trace
forward in the event of a food emergency. With regard to a cattle
identification system, on December 30, 2003, Agriculture Secretary
Veneman announced that USDA will begin implementation of a verifiable
system of national animal identification.
The consumer organization also recommended additional measures,
other than those concerning registration and recordkeeping, that FSIS
should take to assure that the public is protected if Bovine Spongiform
Encephalopathy (BSE) is ever discovered in the U.S. The commenter
stated that the additional measures could include designation of
certain tissues from all downer cattle and cattle over 24 months as
Specified Risk Material (SRM) and banning vertebral columns and other
potentially infectious tissues in advanced meat recovery (AMR) systems.
On January 12, 2004, FSIS published three interim final rules in
response to the discovery of a BSE-positive cow in this country. These
rules include provisions that are consistent with the consumer
organization's comments (69 FR 1862, 1874, and 1885).
The government of the foreign country wanted assurances that
registration and recordkeeping measures applied to products exported to
the United States are not more trade restrictive than necessary to meet
objectives; are based on sound risk assessments that address real
risks; focus on outcomes rather than prescribing specific measures to
achieve them; allow for the application of equivalence in achieving
objectives; and avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable differences in the
level of protection applied in different situations. That government
also wanted assurances that the increased enforcement of registration
and recordkeeping requirements and changes to current registration data
will meet the U.S Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures agreement and the
U.S. Technical Barriers to Trade agreement. In addition, the government
asked for clarification on the timing of FSIS's increased enforcement
of registration and recordkeeping requirements and asked whether this
increased enforcement by FSIS would cause time delays and potential
increases in costs at port of entry for exporters who endeavor to
comply with registration requirements.
The government also wanted assurance that that country's export
establishments would be allowed to maintain rendering facilities
associated with their slaughtering premises and asked specific
questions concerning the registration of the country's rendering
facilities. The government also asked whether transport companies and
other handlers of dead, dying, diseased, or disabled stock, other than
the final handler (or exporter) of the product need to comply with FSIS
registration and recordkeeping requirements.
Even though FSIS has developed a new registration form that
requires that parties provide certain information that was not required
on the previous form, FSIS did not impose any substantive new
registration requirements or any new recordkeeping requirements in the
June 25, 2003, document. The requirement that U.S. companies submit the
new registration form will not result in a trade barrier.
For companies in foreign countries to be eligible to export to the
U.S. product from livestock covered by the FMIA, the foreign country
must have requirements equivalent to those in the Federal Meat
Inspection Act and the Federal meat inspection regulations that apply
to establishments preparing product for export to the U.S. (Sec.
327.2). Therefore, the government that commented should have existing
registration and recordkeeping requirements that are equivalent to
those in the FMIA and Federal meat inspection regulations with which
businesses in that country must comply. The June 25, 2003, statement
did not affect the equivalency requirements in Sec. 327.2 or the meat
inspection requirements of the foreign country.
Additional Public Notification
Public awareness of all segments of rulemaking and policy
development is important. Consequently, in an effort to better ensure
that the public and in particular that minorities, women, and persons
with disabilities are aware of this notice, FSIS will announce it on-
line through the FSIS Web page located at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
FSIS also will make copies of this Federal Register publication
available through the FSIS Constituent Update, which is used to provide
information regarding FSIS policies, procedures, regulations, Federal
Register notices, FSIS public meetings, recalls, and other types of
information that could affect or
[[Page 21049]]
would be of interest to our constituents and stakeholders. The update
is communicated via Listserv, a free e-mail subscription service
consisting of industry, trade, and farm groups, consumer interest
groups, allied health professionals, scientific professionals, and
other individuals who have requested to be included. The update is also
available on the FSIS Web page. Through Listserv and the web page, FSIS
is able to provide information to a much broader, more diverse
audience.
Done in Washington, DC, on April 15, 2004.
Linda M. Swacina,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 04-8948 Filed 4-15-04; 4:15 pm]